Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 391 



to provide fancy clothing, for the decoration of the pots, and robes 

 for the singers. 



The principal ceremonial equipment consisted of two very large 

 clay pots decorated to represent the water snakes from whom it was 

 believed they were obtained. One was slightly larger than the other 

 and represented the male and the smaller one represented the female. 

 It is said that the decorations on the body of these vessels represented 

 the snakes. However, no one living at the time this study was made 

 could provide a precise description of the decorations. The two 

 vessels were kept in a corn chamber in a bed of soft sage ^^ and covered 

 with a strong roof of ash poles and earth. They were taken from the 

 pit only on ceremonial occasions. They were never exposed to 

 direct sunlight and were kept in the earth lodge while the ceremony 

 was performed. 



This apparently was the only rainmaking rite which provided 

 opportunities for formal fasting and torturing. Young men conducted 

 themselves in essentially the same manner as when fasting during 

 the NaxpikE, the Wolf, or the Mandan Okipa ceremonies, calling 

 on members of their father's clan to insert the sticks for the suspension 

 or dragging of buffalo skulls. The use of a carved log to represent 

 a snake with eyes, mouth, and nostrils at one end and carved notches 

 along the back was unique to this ceremony. During the performance 

 of the ceremony, the leaders ran back and forth beside the log dragging 

 a vibrator over the notches. The resulting noise was beUeved to 

 represent the sounds made by the snakes when "bringing the rains." 

 On other occasions during the performance of the rites, drumheads 

 made from the buffalo's paunch were tied tightly over the two clay 

 pots and allowed to dry. The drumsticks consisted of curved 

 willows with a crosshatching of sinews. There were special songs 

 for "Tying-the-Pots," referring to the tying of drumheads over 

 the pots, which is the name by which the ceremony is known today. 



Those who fasted during the ceremony were provided with small 

 notched sticks or carved ribs which they rubbed together whenever 

 the singers caused the large vibrator to be sounded. It is suggested 

 that these small individual vibrators are the numerous notched ribs 

 found frequently in all of the Hidatsa and Mandan village sites of the 

 Heart River focus or culture. When the ceremony was completed, the 

 pots were returned to the cache and protected by a pole and earth 

 cover. Informants thought those giving the ceremony also received 

 rights to make pottery with certain designs. 



The ceremony had many features in common with the men's 

 Notched Stick age-grade society of Awaxawi village. It appears that 



'» Called "different sage" by the Hidatsa. 



