Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 305 



she would marry Charred Body, her village group would come back with them and 

 help them repel the enemies. The chief's daughter rejected him and insulted 

 him so Charred Body killed her. The chief called on Bear, Buffalo Bull, Man- 

 with-No-Head, Man-with-Fire-Around-his- Ankles, Old-Woman-with-Basket, White 

 Beaver, and all Uving things on the earth to assist him in destroying the 

 village and all agreed to assist him. [Wolf Chief explained that this fight between 

 villages was equivalent to interclan quarrels after these small village groups 

 united into large villages. The narrative illustrates the penalty for murder to 

 be the destruction of the group. Note above that a village group was also 

 destroyed when Hungry Wolf and his brother. High Bird, quarreled.] 



First Creator visited the enemy village, learned their plans, and sent the meadow- 

 lark back with instructions. The chief's gods, however, caused Charred Body to 

 forget what he had been told. Yellow Weasel decoyed Charred Body from the 

 village and First Creator concealed Charred Body's sister in a corn chambei 

 before the attack on the village was to be made. The village was burned and the 

 people were killed. 



After the battle. Charred Body rebuilt a lodge and the sister was called from 

 the corn chamber. The two men hunted game for her and discovered that the 

 enemy had stationed four spirit people, Man-with-Fire-Around-his-Ankles, Man- 

 with-No-Head, Old-Woman-with-Basket, and White Beaver, around the lodge 

 to destroy them. 



Charred Body built a sweat lodge and decreed that in the future the people 

 should use the sweatbaths when returning from hunting and they would keep in 

 good health. [Sweat lodge origin is at this time.] 



The sister was told not to admit any strangers who might come to the lodge 

 when the two men were out hunting. Man-with-No-Head came to the lodge 

 while the men were away and she prepared roast meat for him. He declared 

 that he ate only when the meat was placed on the abdomen of a pregnant woman. 

 Since she was pregnant, she permitted him to eat from her abdomen; he used his 

 long nails to rip open her abdomen and pull out a baby which he cast towards a 

 pile of old moccasins near the edge of the lodge, giving the child to "edge of the 

 lodge" as his servant. He became known as Lodge Boy. A second child was 

 ripped out and given to a spring near the lodge as the spring's servant and became 

 known as Spring Boy. The mother was suspended between two forked poles and 

 made to appear to be laughing. 



Charred Body returned and found his sister's body, which he placed on a scaf- 

 fold, and Lodge Boy who was hiding in the dark under the inner edge of the lodge. 

 The two men performed rites and Lodge Boy grew to the size of a young man. 

 He asked for gambling sticks and a stone and First Creator made a set for him. 

 Returning from the hunt. First Creator discovered strange tooth marks in a 

 buffalo tongue and Lodge Boy admitted that he had been playing with a strange 

 fellow who Uved in the spring. Spring Boy was captured and, after rites were 

 performed over him, he vomited out the shells of the clams he had been eating 

 and was made to look and behave like other Indians. 



Since the mother came from the sky, the two boys had the supernatural powers 

 of the arrows. Spring Boy performed rites over the mother with his arrows and 

 she was brought back to Hfe. In later times when these powers were trans- 

 mitted to the people, the Arrow ceremonies began. [Arrow rites began at this 

 point.] 



The mother warned the two boys not to go near Man-with-Fire-Around-his- 

 Ankles but they visited him, borrowed his moccasins, ran around him, and thus 

 destroyed him with his own moccasins. They burned his lodge as was customary 

 after a successful battle. 



