Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 243 



Sioux and one shot down Sitting Owl; Never-Runs-Away thought he would get 

 ahold of one but when he crossed the creek, the enemy knocked him down also. 



Someone asked Sitting Owl how he was and he said, "l am not suffering." 

 His father came up and Sitting Owl said, "You have always told us to be brave 

 and now I am all in. I am going now and I think my brother, Never-Runs-Away, 

 is on the way and waiting for me. I do not want any doctor. Cover up my face 

 with my robe." And when they took it off again, he was dead. 



At the village, Guts tore his mouth in mourning for liis two sons who were so 

 brave that they did not have long to Uve. He took off his clothing and threw 

 it away. He cut deep gashes in his body and cut out pieces of flesh. He cut 

 off his hair and went about through the village in mourning for a year. He 

 would go out onto the hills or near the graves and scaffolds to cry and fast. 

 Their brothers did the same. Guts would go out at night in the winter and cry 

 through the village. One night when he was crying that way Different Wolf 

 called him in and told him that he had fasted long enough. 



Different Wolf said, "You will get even. I have been fasting because I have 

 felt so sorry for you. My gods called me Medicine Chief and offered me five 

 squash to eat. When I had finished eating, they had turned into five enemy 

 skulls. That means that you will get five enemies for the two sons you have 

 lost. I dreamt that while you were mourning, so you should stop now. You 

 have been sad long enough. When you get the five enemies, you will enjoy 

 yourself again. I have had this dream for you." 



About a month later he still had not stopped crying when some men saw the 

 tracks of five men. The enemy had come to the outskirts of the village looking 

 for horses. Crow-Flies-High was first to find the tracks. The men all went 

 after the enemy and camped out on the prairies. When morning came they saw 

 the enemy. The men painted and put on their holy things before fighting them. 

 Four of the enemy were killed. The fifth enemy had a beautiful necklace that 

 a Crow Indian wanted. In the battle he struck the enemy in the eye with his 

 hand for he was very brave. Then the enemy ran. Ten "brothers" ran after 

 the enemy and cut his head off and broke it up with their axes. 



Guts was very happy for now he was even with the enemy for killing his two 

 sons. No longer did he fast. He painted his body black and rubbed off the 

 white paint. He brought out the large rattles belonging to his Earthnaming 

 bundle and sang the victory songs for Different Wolf saying "What Different 

 Wolf said was right; what he promised to give he has given." 



Because Crow-Fhes-High found the tracks and was always to the front where 

 he struck the enemy, the people praised him and gave him a new name. 



Then Bobtail Bull, whose two brothers had been revenged, began to plan his 

 life. He fasted 4 nights in the NaxpikE and did not eat. He dreamed of Guts' 

 Earthnaming bundle and that he was out to war and was bringing back the 

 scalps from two men. He notified his "fathers" of his dream and they said that 

 the bundle was instructing him to take over his father's place. So the young 

 men he invited to go out with him came to his father's lodge, and there Guts 

 opened and hung up the sacred bundle before them and prayed that they would 

 have good luck. Guts promised that they would strike three enemies. The 

 men went out and found two enemies and killed them without losing any of their 

 own. Because Bobtail Bull was the leader he got credit for the two men and 

 now the people said he was on the right path; he had revenged his older brothers' 

 deaths and he was a war leader. 



Because they honored him, the old men came often to his lodge to eat and 

 smoke. There were old people there eating and smoking all the time. Bobtail 

 Bull said to them, "I claim nothing for myself ; it was my father's gods who did it." 



