336 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



during the winter, brings the cold and drives the game away, she instructs Grand- 

 son to fly into the air and blow the whistle, driving the animals off. Two Men are 

 starving and promise to give a medicine feast if Grandson will come down and 

 stop blowing his whistle. 



Two Men send Grandson for the hide of the Chief of the Antelopes to be used 

 in the rites. Grandmother prepares the antelope's hide for covering the basket 

 used in the ceremony. Two Men, First Creator, and all of the gods come to the 

 ceremony during which Grandson permits Two Men to hold the sacred bow and 

 arrows until their supernatural powers have in part been returned to them. [The 

 narrative here accounts for the sacred basket covered with antelope hide which 

 was a part of the Old- Woman-Who-Never- Dies bundle.] 



Old- Woman-Who-Never- Dies continues to live near Short Missouri with her 

 Grandson and both are very holy. All this time Two Men travel around a great 

 deal for they are in reality arrows. Long after the Chief of the Antelopes was 

 killed, the Hidatsa-River Crow come to the Heart River and cross there onto the 

 west side. One young man goes up the Heart River to fast, thinking that some 

 new spirits might reveal themselves and he receives a vision from Sunrise Wolf 

 who instructs him to go on the warpath. [This dates the origin of the Sunrise 

 Wolf rites.] 



This Village- Young-Man comes upstream to Short Missouri where his party 

 is fed by their "grandmother." She feeds them in clay pots and instructs them 

 to stir the food when it is low and the pots fill again. She promises them success 

 if they go to the west, saying that they will find seven enemies wearing wolf hides 

 around their bodies and carrying bows without bark. She asks for one of the 

 scalps to hang on the side of her basket. The war party finds the seven enemies 

 (pl.9) , kills them, and brings a scalp to their grandmother. She tells them that when- 

 ever they want to get the best of their enemies, they should promise her some- 

 thing. [This incident is used to explain the presence of scalps in a sacred bundle 

 primarily concerned with agriculture.] 



By tliis time the people learn where she has her lodge and come there frequently 

 to eat. Heretofore, as she caused her gardens to thrive, the gardens of those she 

 blessed also thrived but she was annoyed by their frequent visits. So she instructs 

 the people through visions how to perform the rites and hunters discover that she 

 has disappeared and abandoned her lodge and gardens. The hunters see a ring 

 of stones to the southwest where her tipi had stood. Long after this Two Men 

 discover that she has taken up residence far to the south on a large island where 

 she cares for her gardens and is guarded by four water monsters. They learn 

 that the spirits of vegetation, particularly the corn and other garden things, 

 spend the winter with her, coming south with the waterbirds in the fall and 

 returning with them in the spring.^s 



One day Grandson returns to the earth lodge at Short Missouri to discover that 

 his grandmother is gone and her lodge and gardens are deserted (see also Wool- 

 worth, 1956). He goes south to a village downstream from Knife River to live 

 with Water Grass whom he adopts as "friend." Grandson has the sacred whistle 

 which brings rains for the crops if used during the summer but which drives away 

 the animals when used at other times. 



Grandson does not reveal his identity, but First Creator comes to the village 

 and tells the people that the stranger is Grandson who came down from above. 



Grandson informs Water Grass that they will found the Stone Hammer society 

 and he gives his friend instructions in the rites and meanings of the objects used. 

 He tells Water Grass that the pole across the smoke hole represents the pole his 



" For additional traditions of Old- Woman- Who-Never-Dies, see Thunder ceremonies, p. 359. 



