346 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



son to drive away the animals and punish Two Men, were also in- 

 cluded. When blown in summer the whistle brought rains; in 

 the winter it brought blizzards. These were the primary sacred 

 objects of a principal bundle, according to Mrs. White Duck whose 

 father, Poor Wolf, owned the Awaxawi principal bundle. She thought 

 that there had formerly been a snakeskin in the bundle also but 

 that he had sold this to a "son" who had dreamed of the snake belong- 

 ing to the bundle and that it had never been replaced. Old-Woman- 

 Who-Never-Dies' husband at Short Missom-i was a large snake, and, 

 in her southern home. Two Men once discovered that four large 

 "grandfather" snakes associated with water guarded her island 

 home from trespassers. 



The list of objects contained in Bobtail Bull's Mandan bundle, 

 according to Mrs. Owen Baker, was the same as reported by Mrs. 

 White Duck.^* This would indicate that even for the Mandan before 

 their union with the Hidatsa, two almost identical Corn ceremonies 

 were celebrated. By contrast, the Eobe bundle owned by Moves 

 Slowly had these objects: a buffalo robe said to have been worn 

 by Good-Furred-Kobe, on which was painted a map of the world 

 showing the Missouri Kiver as a huge snake and the hole through 

 which the people were believed to have passed in reaching the earth; 

 a carved wooden pipe showing the head of a goose ; headdress of fox- 

 skins; white sage; buffalo hide moccasins with hair to the inside; 

 clay pot (it had been broken and was never replaced) ; a piece of elk 

 hide; gourd rattle; corn silk; three ears of corn (white flint, yellow, 

 white soft); strip of badger skin; several blackbirds and one green- 

 head duck's head; a deer skull to rest the bundle on; three dried 

 squash; a sunflower head; and a robe made of kit fox hides. 



The ceremonies were restricted entirely to the period from the first 

 appearance of the waterbirds in the spring to their fall flight south- 

 ward. The principal rites were performed at the beginning and 

 end of the period. It was customary also for the Goose women to 

 meet at these times whether paid to do so or not. Until the old cul- 

 ture broke down, there were usually several meetings in the spring 

 and again in the fall, and at other times when invited to dance. '^^ 

 Usually a number of people pledged to have the Goose society dance 

 and put up goods and meat for the spring dances. The fall dances, 

 by contrast, ushered out the summer garden period. Dances at that 

 time were said to please the water birds which, as messengers of the 

 Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies, upon reaching their winter homes with 



'« This Bobtail Bull was killed July 13, 1851, and should not be confused with the Bobtail Bull who led the 

 Hidatsa to Fort Buford. 



"See Lowie, 1913, vol. 11, pp. 330-338, for a description of their rites; Boiler, 1868, pp. 147-149; Curtis, 

 1907 a, pp. 148-152. 



