380 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



out, and having some of your friends chase you. They will pretend that they 

 are killing you and take your clothing, bow and arrows, knife, or whatever weapons 

 you are accustomed to carry. It will be a sham battle. You will come back naked 

 and by doing that you will avoid bad luck." 



Poor Wolf dreamed the enemy came upon him and killed him, so the next day he 

 told his friends of his dream. Roadmaker, his mother's brother, advised him to 

 dress up in his best, have the people come out imitating the enemy, knock him 

 down, and strip him. Poor Wolf did, and the warriors took after him. He stopped 

 to fight back and the men struck him down, took the horsehair that he wore as a 

 scarf, and went back to the village. About that time he heard an uproar on the 

 south side of the village where men were running their horses and shooting as they 

 rode about. Poor Wolf heard one of them cry "The enemy has killed one of us" 

 and he ran over there to see if he could get into the fight, only to learn that they 

 were referring to the sham battle in which he had been "killed." 



When Seven Bears (Awaxawi) had a similar dream he put on a sham battle and 

 said, "This is the time that I cheated my body" meaning that he had used his 

 sacred bundles to ward off arrows.' 



Poor Wolf told of a man from Awaxawi who pretended to be lame and would 

 limp during all of the ceremonies. He unbraided one side of his hair and let it fall 

 over the eye. He would say, "My left eye socket is hollow for the eye has broken 

 and is all white." 



The people would say to him, "One should not wish for evil, only the good things 

 in life," but the man would only reply, "I do not believe in those things; I want to 

 see if there is any truth to them. That is why I am doing this." 



In time he had a sore eye. It broke open and then it was hollow. He would 

 take his hair down to cover it. Poor Wolf said to him "You were always telling us 

 you had a bad ej'e with cataracts and now you have what j'ou have been wishing 

 for. Why don't you put j'^our hair up so we can see your eye?" 



Seven Bears would not, for he was ashamed of it. The enemy came and he was 

 far back in the line but a bullet glanced and hit him in the thigh, breaking the 

 bone. When he was well again, he had trouble getting around. 



Roadmaker had the right to wear everything that a chief wore and died at 

 Awaxawi village after the smallpox epidemic was over. 



CREEK 



These sacred bundles and their associated rites were closely related 

 to the Missouri River bundles and rites. There were two bundles 

 after 1837 but both were considered subdivisions of a sacred bundle 

 and rites originating at Awatixa. Both bundles can be traced back to 

 Missouri River bundle owners; Missouri River for the Awatixa, and 

 Poor Wolf (an older Poor Wolf who died about 1840) of Awaxawi. 

 The bundle rites were associated with certain spirits believed to 

 reside in the small tributaries of the Missouri River, the chief god being 

 a large snake who resided in the Little Missouri and assured good 

 hunting along that stream. A complete bundle contained beaver fur 

 and claws, otter skin, turtle shell, buffalo skull, mink skin, dried frog, 

 black root or medicine, peppermint, sage, cedar, muskrat sldn (option- 



' I did not find reference to this practice for the other Hidatsa groups, but the Mandan made comparable 

 references to sham battles for warding ofl misfortunes. 



