Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 359 



claimed that when the wind was not blowing during the evening and 

 there were no clouds in the sky, they could hear the large snake in 

 Devils Lake breathing as the water lapped the shores. The Thunder 

 bundle owned by Smells seems to have been the only one originating 

 from supernatural experiences relating to the Exodus myth. (See 

 pp. 298-299 for this myth.) 



The Sacred Arrow myths relate the supernatural settings on the 

 Missouri for a number of other Thunder rites believed to have origi- 

 nated with the original "Missouri River" peoples. The myth is one 

 segment of the exploits of Two Men. To place this sacred myth in its 

 proper chronological position in the system, it was customary for the 

 narrator to relate the preceding section of the myth. This Wolf Chief 

 did while relating the sacred Thunder myth, which, in condensed form, 

 follows: 



A village of Hidatsa live at Devils Lake; there are no clans. ^ 



Two Men are living there; they are Big Medicine (Lodge Boy) and Black 

 Medicine (Spring Boy). Because Two Men are actually arrows, they travel all 

 over and are protected by the arrows when they sleep. Black Medicine is taken 

 above to be tortured for killing the sacred things below. Big Medicine finds the 

 hole and goes above. He travels from the zenith westward and reaches the village 

 of the speckled eagles; the next day he reaches the village of eagles with white 

 heads and tail feathers (bald eagle) ; the third day he reaches the village of eagles 

 with white bars and speckles (old calumet) ; the fourth and last village is of the 

 young calumet. There he finds an old woman living alone and learns that 

 Black Medicine is there and is being tortured by Long Arm.^^ 



Big Medicine learns that his brother is to be killed on the pole and buried be- 

 tween two mounds. Big Medicine frees his brother and Long Arm attempts to 

 prevent their return. When they fail to cut off the [Long Arm's] hand they 

 declare that this job is to be left for succeeding generations. Two Men return to 

 Devils Lake where the chief is named Horn-Between-the-Water.^^ 



Two Men travel to the east and shoot at a white object flying by, tie themselves 

 together, are carried far to the southeast by a strong wind, and land on an island. 

 They meet Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies who formerly lived farther upstream at 

 Short Missouri. She has her servants about her and is guarded by four largo 

 snakes living in the water surrounding her island. They hunt for her but she frees 

 the deer they bring in for the deer are her servants. Being homesick, they ask her 

 help to get home. She directs them to the grandfather snakes. One snake 

 carries them on his back and is fed four corn balls; so he reaches the shore. There 

 he swallows Black Medicine. 



Big Medicine cries and Thunderbird, a white hawk, comes along. There is a 

 dual between the bird and the snake, each sending out lightning, but the snake is 

 killed.88 



M Tbis reference to the absence of clans before reaching the Missouri is commonly made. Clans tradition- 

 ally originate from events or incidents relating to residence along the Missouri River. 



'* Narrator introduces listener to concepts of four eagle villages 1 day apart extending from the zenith to 

 the horizon. It is from this fourth village, believed to be in the Rocky Mountains where the earth and sky 

 meet, that eagles left to establish the Waterbuster Skull bundle described below. 



" This is the first reference to Two Men in association with Devils Lake. From this point, the Exodus 

 and Sacred Arrow narratives unite and are concerned with events on the Missouri River. 



8« This is an example of the conflicts between the sky gods and the water gods. 



