304 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



way that knots are related to each other by their order on the string. 

 The myth as summarized in this study has been assembled from many 

 informants. It has been rechecked with several informants and 

 represents, in my opinion, the best that can be done at this time to 

 organize and relate the various ceremonies. In only a few instances 

 were there disagreements between informants as to the order of origin. 

 No single individual ever held ceremonial rights in more than a few 

 of the formal rites of the series; nevertheless, each bundle owner knew 

 where his sacred myth and rights began and another's terminated. 

 Likewise each individual would know whose sacred rites began where 

 his terminated. Generally, several individuals would own the pre- 

 ceding "knot" and so on. The formal ceremonial pattern was 

 symbolized by strings with Imots. 



Bears Arm provided a unique design, an inverted Y, to illustrate 

 the pattern both in respect to time and space. The two forks of the 

 Y constituted: (1) the making of the earth, the creation of the living 

 things, and the exodus of the people from the underworld; and (2) the 

 sacred arrow legends of the settlement of the lands by people from the 

 sky. The convergence of the two lines represented the convergence 

 of the various Hidatsa village groups onto the Missouri River after 

 the Crow had moved away. The continuation of the base of the Y as 

 a single line represented the period of intervillage cooperation during 

 which a new series of ceremonies developed. He then proceeded to 

 make "knots" on the string to represent the points in the traditional 

 history of the tribe when the various ceremonies originated. A sum- 

 mary of the events of Myth of the Sacred Arrows of Awatixa village 

 foUows: 



Charred Body lived in a large village in the sky. All the people there were 

 living in four large earth lodge villages a day's journey from each other. Charred 

 Body was a sacred arrow and, hearing the bellowing of the buffaloes which he did 

 not understand, he looked through a hole in the sky and found that a new land 

 existed below on which many buffaloes were walking. He liked the appearance 

 of this new land so he changed himself into an arrow and descended to the earth 

 near the present site of Washburn. The spirit people living below immediately 

 attempted to destroy him. A man named Fire-Around-his-Ankles encircled 

 Charred Body and burned the feathers from his arrow. 



Charred Body made 13 earth lodges on a high bench overlooking a creek now 

 bearing his name and returned to the sky where he selected 13 young couples to 

 occupy the lodges he had made. Since they possessed the spirits of arrows, 

 all flew down to the new land. These 13 households increased to 13 village groups, 

 for this was a rich land to which they had come. [These household groups are 

 named later and become the clans.] 



First Creator found the village, visited Charred Body, and was invited to come 

 to the village to smoke with the men. Surrounded by various evil spirits who 

 were always attempting to drive them out, the people of Charred Body's village 

 accepted First Creator's offer of assistance. First Creator and Charred Body 

 went to the east to another village to see the chief's daughter, thinking that if 



