296 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



myths belonging to another in order to sell them; one bought as a 

 guide in offering wise judgment to younger people. 



In addition to the central sacred myths which related ceremonies 

 to each other in time and space and provided a rudimentary history 

 of the various village groups, there were many myths of a semisacred 

 or sacred character which occupied an indefinite position; some were 

 freely told as good entertainment and often with a moral exalting 

 generosity, others were related to certain bundle rites without actually 

 comprising the central core of the rites. 



First Creator stories were told freely by both men and women 

 and his magical acts were a constant source of entertainment. How- 

 ever important First Creator was in organizing the habitat for man's 

 first existence, he was represented in certain rites only as the waiter. 

 In spite of his traditional role of creating many things, there was no 

 ceremony in which he occupied the principal position. Instead, he 

 is the trickster who entertained the people while those spirits he 

 created provided the psychological basis for the performance of the 

 various rites. 



Bundle inheritance was by two distinct patterns. Most sacred 

 bundles were transmitted from father to son with wide leeway to 

 provide for "father and son" inheritance by clan as weU as blood 

 relationships. This pattern included rites from both of the sacred 

 myth series. There were, however, a number of sacred bundles for- 

 merly kept at Awatixa village which were transmitted within the clan. 

 These were the Waterbuster bundle of human skulls said to represent 

 two eagles; the KJiife bundle of two eagles; and the Holy Robe of the 

 Prairie Chicken clan. The other sacred bundles from Awatixa were 

 inherited in a father-to-son pattern as were aU bundles at Hidatsa 

 and Awaxawi, so far as informants knew.^^ This deviation from the 

 normal pattern at Awatixa is significant since this group with its 

 long traditional residence on the Missouri River shows many features 

 of the Mandan clan-inheritance pattern not clearly indicated for the 

 other two Hidatsa groups who traditionally arrived much later on 

 the river. 



Details of the Hidatsa ceremonial organization are given in the 

 chapters that foUow. In organizing the great mass of materials at 

 my disposal, I have presented the material roughly in the order in 

 which my informants believed the sacred beliefs and rites were in- 

 troduced into the tribe. I could have presented the Buffalo Calling 

 rites in conjunction with the Rain rites but many natives think of 

 them as having separate origins. Some ceremonies are viewed by 

 the natives as of multiple origins and, in those cases, I have presented 

 them with closely related rites. 



« Genealogies, however, suggest possible clan inheritance for some of the Awaxawi Snake ceremonies. 



