Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 345 



and his wife met him to deliver the sacred wooden pipe and a robe. 

 It was customary for the same group of relatives to assist in putting 

 up the goods as when any other tribal ceremony was being performed. 

 The Goose society did not meet as a group but individuals who had 

 qualified formerly by giving ceremonial feasts to the Old-Woman- 

 Who-Never-Dies could attend. During the bundle transfer, the 

 buyer fed the participants and spectators, received the blessings of 

 the sacred bundle owners, and paid those who were entitled to attend 

 and to participate. 



The contents of a principal or complete sacred bundle varied 

 slightly between village groups, whether Hidatsa or Mandan. There 

 was, first and foremost, a corn basket covered with a tanned ante- 

 lope hide from which the hair had been removed. The corn basket 

 frame represented Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies and the antelope 

 hide represented Chief-of-the-Antelopes who was killed by Grandson 

 on orders of this old woman. The Sacred Arrows referred to the 

 visit of Two Men to her lodge when they gave Grandson his choice 

 ot arrows in return for "walking" with the grandmother. The 

 human scalp referred to her assistance to VUlage-Young-Man who 

 once came to her lodge to eat and rest before going to the west to get 

 the seven enemies she had promised him. A wooden pipe with the 

 carving of a goosehead on the stem represented the goose as the har- 

 binger of spring and the termination of the growing period in autumn. 

 Two clay pots represented the sacred pots which were once placed 

 on the shore by the Snake people and which were used to feed visitors.^* 

 By stirring the contents of the pots, the vessels could not be emptied. 

 The headdress of foxskin represented the fox who served as messenger 

 for Grandson when he imprisoned the animals in Dog Dens. White 

 sage was used to cleanse people; it was kept in all households, and 

 after the women returned from working in the gardens they used it to 

 cleanse their bodies from the corn spirits and to remove insects 

 picked up in their work. The gourd rattle represented one of the 

 garden plants. A piece of elkskin was included since the elk assisted 

 her in the gardens; a deer skull and horns were included also, for the 

 deer, too, were her servants. A piece of bearskin was included because 

 Grandson once tamed the grizzly bear to become her helper in place 

 of dogs which she formerly worked. Blackbird heads were included, 

 for they were her helpers — eating the insects in the gardens — and 

 are also mentioned in the myth. A circular drum decorated with 

 goose tracks was sometimes also included. Corn, particularly 

 yellow corn, beans, pumpkins, and sunflowers, and a whistle made 

 of the stalk of the sunflower, representing the whistle used by Grand- 



" Pottery is generally associated with the snakes and water. It was customary when making pots to shape 

 them In a secluded and dark place, as in an earth lodge with the entrance and part of the smoke hole covered. 



