352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



the ear down from the wall. There would be a bullet inside. Each time he 

 would take the bullet to the edge of the village and put it away. Six times he 

 had a dream and found a bullet in the ear the next day; yet he did not want to have 

 the bear for he was still single. It was almost impossible for a single person to 

 perform the ceremony and get the Bear rites. The Bears told him that if he took 

 the Bullet medicines, the bullets would not go through him; still he did not want 

 it yet. After that he did not dream of the Bear Bullet rites again.^i 



The next dream he had was of the Bear ceremony. He went into the lodge 

 and made the pledge as a father's clansman instructed him. In the ceremony 

 there was to be a waiter (iztakis) representing First Creator. It was his duty 

 to keep up the fires. Then there were the Two Men, Spring Boy, and Lodge 

 Boy. Spring Boy had a bow and two arrows, one red and one black; Lodge Boy 

 had only the two arrows, one red and the other black. Old- Woman-Crawling 

 went out for the bear and his father's clansmen prepared the hide for the ceremony. 



Bears Arm was assistant to his father, the singer, when Black 

 Shield purchased the rights. He was the only male informant 

 acquainted, from observation and instruction, with the details of the 

 rites and their meaning. He never bought a complete bundle nor 

 killed a grizzly bear ceremonially because the aboriginal culture had 

 broken down before he had attained the proper age and had married. 

 He supplied the following eyewitness account of a bundle purchase in 

 which he assisted and which he beUeves was conducted in the tradi- 

 tional manner: 



Black Shield dreamed of the bears several times and his mother thought that the 

 bears wanted him to put on the ceremony for her mother's brother's bundle. 

 Black Shield made the vow to perform the ceremony. He selected a man of his 

 father's clan, the Low Caps, to supervise collection of materials to go into the 

 bundle and the persons to officiate. Purchase was from Cherry Necklace who 

 was then dead. The portions of his bundle which had not been sold had been 

 put away. He had been wrapped in the bear hide for it was believed that when 

 one died, he and the bear went away together. 



Black Shield shot a grizzly bear to get the hide since it was required that the 

 purchaser kill the bear whose hide was to be used during the ceremony. This 

 was to become the principal article in the bundle. As soon as the bear was 

 killed, a father's clansman was called to take off the skin for the purchaser was 

 not permitted to butcher or skin the bear. 



The killing of the bear was considered a ceremonial act and he said before 

 killing the animal, "My father, I have come for you. I have a feast prepared and 

 I need you. You will come and live with me now and when I die, we will go 

 away together." 



Then the animal was killed. The father's clansman skinned the animal and 

 delivered the hide to the father's clansman in charge of collecting the materials 

 for the bundle. 



Twenty robes and twenty pairs of moccasins were required, together with enough 

 corn balls and meat to feed the participants. In this case the ceremony was held 

 in Black Shield's lodge although it was customary at Fishhook Village to use the 

 large Okipa lodge belonging to the Mandan on similar occasions. 



»i For additional information on beliefe and practices relating to bullets, see "Warfare.' 



