288 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



except as the individual owners choose to speak of them during social 

 or ceremonial gatherings. The bundle was prepared in the manner 

 prescribed by the supernatural spirit and the songs and ritual were 

 privately owned. The guardian spirit could be any creature in 

 nature not specifically associated with a particular tribal bundle as 

 long as the proper name of a spirit of one of the established bundles 

 was not used nor the songs recognized to be identical or similar to 

 existing sacred songs. 



When the similarities in the vision experiences were so great that 

 people associated them with existing rites, one making up a personal 

 bundle was in danger of public condenmation, not for stealing another's 

 ceremony, but for failing to call on his "fathers" for an interpretation 

 which would have led to a medicine feast and public approval of his 

 association with existing ceremonies. But all personal vision rites 

 were not sufficiently similar to be associated with existing ceremonies. 

 The owner would include the various personal bundles in his total 

 repertoire of sacred objects, periodically "feed" the objects of the 

 various bundles, and even mention them as contributors to his 

 numerous successes whenever called upon to assume various roles 

 on social and ceremonial occasions. The bundles were personal in 

 character and acquired privately, so they had no important rites or 

 traditions associated with them. They were symbols of the individ- 

 ual's social personality during his life and usually were placed with 

 his body when he died. 



Occasionally a grandfather would make up a separate bundle for a 

 grandchild, or an elder would buy the right to doctor minor ailments, 

 but the real authority for various tribal practices was derived from 

 the sacred tribal myths. No doubt most personal bundle rites were 

 conditioned by the culture of the group, but the Hidatsa do not admit 

 that; instead they say that one dreams as he does because partic- 

 ular gods have selected him. It was considered good luck to dream 

 of spirits or incidents from the sacred traditions. Nowhere do they 

 admit that one's visions were conditioned by the culture. Never- 

 theless, we find "father-to-son" inheritance of tribal bundles and 

 rites occurring generation after generation. 



A common belief of the social effect of possessing great supernatural 

 powers was expressed by native utterances such as "because he was 

 now a holy man he conducted himself with dignity, and people, 

 watching him as he went about the village discussing matters and 

 advising younger 'brothers,' could see that a great change had come 

 over him. He dressed well and gave more attentiom to his appear- 

 ance. He had an air of confidence that people liked to see, for aU this 

 had come from his suffering." By contrast, one who believed that 

 he had lost his supernatural powers went about dejectedly and was 



