342 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



According to Hidatsa traditions, the three village groups did not 

 simultaneously adopt the Goose society to assist the Old-Woman- 

 Who-Never-Dies bundle owners. The society was first to reach the 

 Awaxawi through the Mandan living near Painted Woods; the 

 Awatixa were second, and the Hidatsa were last. This would seem 

 to confirm beliefs that the Hidatsa-proper were relatively late to adopt 

 agriculture while the other two village groups had a relatively long 

 history of agriculture, the Awatixa on the Missouri above the Mandan 

 villages and the Awaxawi on the stream courses to the east. 



Recent changes in the culture patterns resulting from bundle 

 buying would indicate that the Hidatsa have greatly enriched their 

 Corn rites chiefly as a result of Mandan contacts. Immediately 

 after the smallpox epidemic of 1837 Bear-Looks-Out, Old-Woman- 

 Who-Never-Dies bundle owner of Awaxawi, married into the Mandan 

 family owning the Skull bundle of the three culture heroes who led 

 the corn spirit people from the gTound. His Mandan father-in-law, 

 Red Bird (also known as Different Pipe), had been a leader in the 

 Mandan Corn rites and was singer for the Goose society. Red Bird 

 was discouraged when his only son died after the epidemic had run 

 its course and then indicated a desire to dispose of the bundle which, 

 in spite of the high price he had paid for it, had not brought his family 

 good luck during the epidemic, Bear-Looks-Out indicated a desire 

 to buy the bundle with his wife. Corn Woman of the Mandan Prairie 

 Chicken clan, and the sale was made with the approval of the ISlandan 

 of the Mitutanku village group. The bundle is popularly known as the 

 Good-Furred-Robe Skull bundle. Sale by a man to his son-in-law 

 was a common Mandan pattern. 



The bundle represents the three brothers and their sister, children 

 of Corn Father. The children are believed to have been separated 

 from their father during the exodus from the ground at a point 

 downstream near the mouth of the Mississippi when the vine was 

 broken by a pregnant woman who attempted to come to the surface. 

 The bundle contains the skulls of the three brothers, Good-Furred- 

 Robe, Cornhusk Earrings, and Uses-His-Head-for-a-Rattle; white 

 sage; corn silk; a headdress of foxskins; and a wooden pipe (Bowers, 

 1950, p, 186, fig. 24), 



The Skull bundle was obtained by the Awaxawi at the time of the 

 union of the Hidatsa and Mitutanku Mandans for the building 

 of Fishhook Village. Although Bear-Looks-Out kept the two bundles 

 separate, both were taken to ceremonial functions, thus providing 

 a situation wherein both the Mandan and Hidatsa groups were en- 

 titled to meet collectively for Corn rites. As singer to two Goose so- 

 cieties, it proved more convenient for the two societies to meet 

 simultaneously with both the Mandan and Hidatsa singers. This 



