Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 255 



In the morning, Four Bears inquired if Bluestone had been given a dream and he 

 said that he had the same dream as his clan brother, Four Bears, except that it 

 was the eagle in the tree that told him instead of the wolves. In the dream he 

 saw an old man standing by the tree with an eagle feather in his hair and this old 

 man told him that they would see one enemy and that Bluestone would be the 

 first one to strike this enemy. 



When Bluestone said that he would be the first to strike the enemy, there were 

 faster young men in the party who did not believe that. They went on until they 

 found an old Assiniboin man picking up duck eggs near a lake. Bluestone was 

 next to the lead but when the Assiniboin was about to shoot, the front man stum- 

 bled and fell so Bluestone struck the enemy someone farther back had shot. The 

 second man to strike was the one who had shot the enemy. 



Four Bears went out again along the White Earth Creek looking for the two 

 enemies he had been promised. He got both of them, women this time, making 

 nine enemies in all that his sacred bundles had "given" him. The people said that 

 if he could go to four times without "kicking the stone" he would be a great man, 

 so he fasted much and gave liberally to the older people. 



One time shortly afterward, the enemy came to the village and stole horses. One 

 Buffalo, who also had a Wolf bundle, organized a party to go after them. When 

 they were a short distance from the village. One Buffalo stopped to select the 

 scouts. He selected, in this order. Raven Bear as leader. Owns- Many-Spotted 

 Horses, and Lifts Heart. When the leader saw Four Bears get up, he named him 

 to be fourth. Four Bears said, "I was expecting to be called first." 



The scouts went out and Four Bears got ahead of the others, finding an Assini- 

 boin sleeping. He had not found any horses. Four Bears killed and scalped him 

 before the others came, but the other scouts went to the place and struck him 

 second, third, and fourth. The war expedition was called off and they went back 

 to the village to dance. 



Four Bears decided to go out again soon afterward to get one enemy and a 

 horse. Since he had been out so often, he thought that his supernatural power 

 might be running out, so he decided to enlist the assistance of some other holy 

 men. Finally he selected his clan brother, One Buffalo, who agreed to help him. 

 They made up a party of 32 men. They traveled southwestward until they came 

 to Buffalo Lodge (Home) Butte. Since it was quite a large party and the hunting 

 was poor, they were soon out of food. Usually buffaloes could be found around 

 this butte, for that was a home of the buffalo spirits. The young men thought they 

 would surely starve and the older men thought they might die, too. 



Two scouts went out ahead and soon afterward the others saw a buffalo running 

 about 2 miles away. One Buffalo said to the others, "We are all in; we can't run 

 that far. We will have to find some other way to get that buffalo." 



One Buffalo seated his party in a row. Then he held his braid to one side and 

 hit his head; powder came out of the ear; from the other ear he took a bullet. 

 He put the powder in the gun, using soft sage as the wad; then he put in the bullet 

 with sage on top of that. All the while he sang a holy song. He directed Four 

 Bears to fill the pipe and start it at the opposite end saying, "As soon as I see 

 smoke coming out of the pipe, I am going to fire the gun." 



They lit the pipe and began to smoke. One of the Old Wolves said, "They are 

 smoking now," so he fired the gun. They continued to smoke and pass the pipe 

 along the line. There were 30 men in the row and when the pipe was to the 

 middle of the line, some claimed a little further, they saw the buffalo fall over 

 nearly 2 miles away. 



After they had enough to eat, the party decided to turn back towards the 

 Missouri at the mouth of Heart River. One day the scouts found a horse, so the 



