328 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



His father said that it was a hard thing to do and gave him instructions in getting 

 into a young woman's body so that he could be born into the tribe. The father 

 sent him down that evening when the stars came out, warning him not to forget 

 who he was. 



The young man walked into an earth lodge and turned himself into a kernel of 

 yellow corn. He was eaten with the mush. In time he was born. His father's 

 sister wrapped him in a hide tanned at the smokehole and he forgot himself. 



He grew to be a large boy and, one evening while playing with burning corncobs 

 on arrows, his father from above came down to refreshen his memory but the boy 

 became angry and ordered him away. The old man and his wife above called the 

 boy back and he died to return to the sky. 



The younger brother asked to go down to the earth and promised that he would 

 not forget his true identity. He, too, was wrapped in the smoke-tanned hide and 

 lost his memory. When he was 18 years old, his older brother living in the lodge 

 told him that it was now time to begin fasting so that he would become a prominent 

 man in the village like those he saw about him. While the young man was fasting 

 on the third night, a stranger appeared and the boy then remembered himself. 

 He was told to go to war, that he would get one enemy on the first trip, two on the 

 second, three on the third, and four on the fourth trip. 



The young man returned to his parent's lodge and was taken to the head of the 

 lodge near the sacred objects where he continued to fast, but he received no 

 additional dreams. He made three trips out for the enemies promised him and 

 everything happened just as he was promised. 



Meanwhile his sister up in the sky received no offerings from him, only his 

 father, and she became jealous. Because he did not make oflferings to her also, 

 she blessed a warrior of an enemy tribe who made oflferings to her and adopted 

 him as her "son," promising him that he would overcome seven of the Hidatsas. 



When the young man went out the fourth time, the expedition was unsuccessful 

 and seven of his party were killed by an enemy painted red and wielding a club 

 of burnt ash wood. The young man fasted seven nights for seven different 

 times. Each time as he came back after fasting seven nights, the other young 

 men would come out to meet him to cry also. The seventh time during his 

 fasting, four old women with their robes tied at the breast came from the four 

 directions to inform him that his sister in the sky had blessed the enemy and 

 had adopted a "son" there, protecting him with a string reaching down from the 

 sky. They informed him that this enemy could only be killed if this young man 

 performed rites for the Holy Women and Village-Old- Woman who created all 

 of them, including this "sister" living above. 



He returned from his fast and prepared the sweat lodge as instructed by the 

 four holy women and they flew in from the roof through the smokehole. Since 

 none of the women assembled there felt capable of carrying the pipe to the holy 

 women in the sky, they sent for Village- Old- Woman who created all of them and 

 she, too, flew into the lodge through the smokehole. 



Village-Old- Woman did not believe that the Woman Above would take the 

 pipe since she had already adopted a young man living with the enemy and had 

 already promised him that he would be victorious over the Hidatsas. Neverthe- 

 less, she agreed to go above to secure a hair from Woman Above's necklace to 

 put in the sweat lodge with the stones. She promised that, if successful in getting 

 the hair, the young man giving the ceremony would not destroy 30 but 400 

 lodges. 



Village-Old-Woman left for "above land" with the pipe, asking the Holy 

 Women to come out and wave their robes at noon when Sun stopped to smoke. 

 Woman Above refused to smoke for she had blessed an enemy and had taken him 



