362 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



The Eagles inform him that another eagle, his father, never comes that way and 

 that meat should be put on the right side of the lodge for him when the ceremony 

 is being performed. This is an offering to the Low Caps. 



Before dying, Packs Antelope tells the people that when he dies, he will return 

 to the sky with his father and mother, the Thunderbirds. A gentle rain with no 

 lightning for the growing crops is a sign that he has returned unseen. 



He tells the people that if offerings are made to the eagles, the givers will be 

 successful; that people will no longer have the power to go around and make deep 

 holes in the ground as he did looking for snakes; that the sight of a dead log or 

 tree breaking down is a sign that a snake once lived there. 



These myths provide the supernatural setting for, and the meaning 

 of, the various rites and practices whereby the supernatural powers 

 promised the people reached individuals of the tribe. With few 

 exceptions (such as the exploits of High Bird and Hungry Wolf 

 associated with an earlier eastern residence, and the more recent 

 exploits of Packs Antelope which take place along the Missouri 

 River) the rites and traditions were also shared by the Mandan who, 

 in recent years, usually attended aU Hidatsa performances. Although 

 the Hidatsa recognize differences in ritual practices and beliefs said 

 to arise from different group histories — no doubt more apparent in 

 earlier times when the three village groups first came together near 

 the Knife River — the Hidatsa system of bundle transfer tends to 

 erase these differences and to unite variants of the same rites into a 

 single complex by the custom of engaging a father's distant clansman 

 as instructor once geographical distance between village groups was 

 reduced. One was usually informed of all details of the father's rites 

 beforehand through living together in the same household. The 

 instructor, however, rarely drew on the giver's father's lore for his 

 learning but rather from another who held singer rights or broader 

 knowledge than his clan brother could have provided. 



Often, by the time one got around to meeting all the prerequisites 

 to bundle purchase, the father was dead. The father played a minor 

 role in the actual transfer. This practice provided for wider contacts 

 when making a ceremonial purchase, for it gave the instructor wide 

 leeway in choosing his assistants from whom he obtained the knowl- 

 edge, interpretations, and practices transmitted to the buyer. In 

 cases where slight cultural differences existed between bundle lines, 

 whether within the same village or between villages brought together 

 by pressure from alien tribes, the instructor played an important role 

 in erasing ideological and ritualistic differences between bundle lines. 

 By contrast, the Mandan system of individual-to-individual sale 

 provided for exact duplication of bundles for seller and buyer, tending 

 to preserve the individual character of the bundle lines. 



Closely paralleling the hereditary bundle rituals were the personal 

 bundles set up as a result of vision experiences. Like other personal 



