Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 387 



Small Ankles said to my mother, "Now it is your turn. I know you have some 

 medicines to doctor her with. You should use some of the peppermint to cleanse 

 her with. You have many kinds; use all at the same time so she will recover the 

 faster." Then he teased my mother, saying, "You see how I doctored her, Y'ou 

 are supposed to be the real doctor for you have the things that came from early 

 times. I am not supposed to be a great doctor for I only dreamed of mine. 

 Still you have seen how I did it. So you should not sit there all the time but do 

 something." 



My mother used a plate to dip the peppermint in, and, sprinkling the girl, she 

 said, "I would hke to see this girl recover; I want to get these horses; I do not 

 want to stay here too long." 



Then she said to my father, "You did not say whether the sick girl would 

 recover or die. I think you ought to tell me." But he would not make a 

 prediction. 



She doctored a second time, greasing the girl with fat taken from around the 

 buffalo's heart and singing the song that went with the use of the fat. When she 

 had finished rubbing the fat into the girl's skin, the girl said, " Now I feel like a dif- 

 ferent person." 



My mother had a turtle shell in her sacred bundle. She said, " I am going to 

 find out if she will recover; it is lime to find out now." 



She burned some of the peppermint before the girl, took up the small turtle 

 and sang the sacred song, " Mink is holy; he came; he is here" and chewed pepper- 

 mint and spit it on the turtle singing, "Peppermint is holy; he came; he is here." 



While she sang, she held the turtle shell in her hand, motioned with it three 

 times and said, " When I throw the turtle on her, she will recover if it stops on 

 her; if it drops down, she will die." 



She threw the turtle towards the girl and it stopped on her abdomen so she 

 said to my father, "Take a stick and tap the turtle lightly." 



He took the stick and tapped the turtle with it and the turtle slid down slowly 

 and fell off the girl. 



My mother said, "I promise that the girl will get better and walk around within 

 3 days." 



They came back to see the girl after that and my father said that he could see 

 that she would recover by her eyes. Within 10 days the girl was walking around 

 again. My mother came back then to cleanse her. She gave the girl a small 

 piece of mink hide to wear around her neck whenever she walked for she was still 

 quite weak and thin. 



When she came home my father said, "It is all right; it was just Uke winning a 

 game. We heard that many doctors had tried and then we succeeded. We 

 have many children of our own so you should not go out doctoring often. If 

 someone calls you again, you should not go." 



Another time Picture came and said that her boy was very sick. It was the 

 custom when they begged, saying, "I know you love your children and do not 

 want to have any bad luck" that one could not refuse. Mother went over to see 

 what ailed the boy and came back to tell my father. 



She said, "You stopped me from going out to doctor. This woman came over 

 and begged through our own children, saying that we honored our children. 

 I do not have to go if you do not want me to. You must decide." 



He said, "Since that old woman came here and begged, honoring our children, 

 I do not see how we can refuse. You could go without taking your sacred bundle, 

 feel of his insides, and see if you can cure him." 



She felt of his stomach and then ordered the people to prepare the sweat lodge. 

 She took him inside and sang the songs of the Creek bundle. When he came out 



