Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 395 



The Wolves said, "There will be a buffalo skull too and a song to go with it and 

 they sang, "He came to the lodge; he is coming." 



The Wolves added, "In the future you will want to reveal all this supernatural 

 power we have given you, but do not tell them anything until they make fun of 

 you. When you are out against the enemy, and the scouts report the enemy 

 near, there is a holy song that the scouts should use. Tell them that when they 

 run back to report, they should pretend to be coyotes. Then the others should 

 stand in a row. The warriors will sing and the scouts will tell where they saw 

 the enemies. There is also a holy song that belongs to a very old female wolf: 

 at the end there is a howl. 2* Anyone who sings this song and makes a wish will 

 be unusually successful in getting what he asks. Whenever the warriors come 

 back with success over their enemies, they should put red paint under their 

 noses; this is a sign of success. It may be that in the future other generations will 

 want additional dreams. Then they, too, may get additional holy songs from us." 



So ended the Wolves' instructions. 



Each time the warriors went out to kill their enemies, this young man would 

 say that he was going along and that he was the one who would do the actual 

 killing. When the party returned, he would put marks on his leggings. The 

 people thought this was funny for he had not been out to war. His pal would tell 

 him what the people said. 



One time the warriors, including the pal, were out and they made up a war 

 song giving him a name, singing, "The Man-who-Stays-at-Home-Smoking-and- 

 Jealous, he pretends to be brave; still he has not done anything. He is just 

 fooling himself." 



So the people called him Village- Young-Man. He told his pal of his experiences 

 with the wolves and which he had now passed on to the others to make them 

 successful. He announced that he was really going out to reveal his supernatural 

 powers. There were 12 in the party which included himself and his pal. They 

 came to the lodge of Old- Woman- Who-Never-Dies and she brought out bowls 

 of roasted corn for her "grandchildren." The men thought the pots were very 

 small indeed and she sensed their thought, saying, "Those are indeed small vessels. 

 When the vessels are nearly empty, stir them and they will fill again. When 

 you go out, go to the west. There are seven men whom you will meet.^* You 

 can kill them all off. They will have wolf hides around their bodies and carry 

 bows without bark. When you kill those seven enemies, I wish you would bring 

 me one of the scalps to hang on the side of my basket." ^s 



They went west to an oak grove, killed the seven warriors, and gave the old 

 woman the scalp. She said, "Whenever you want to get the best of your enemies, 

 you should promise me something." 



At home the people danced and Village- Young-Man decorated his spear and 

 wore feathers to show what he had done. 



Black Hawk organized a war party and the pal thought they should go along 

 so further demonstrations of his supernatural powers could be revealed. Village- 

 Young-Man went to his fasting grounds to get further instructions from the 

 wolves. Then he saw the tipis far to the north so he asked his wife to prepare 

 his moccasins. She did not beUeve he would go out for he was always promising 

 and never went out. 



« This reference Is to the Wolf Woman of the Wolf Woman ceremony. 



'« These seven warriors were tm-ned to stone (pi. 9). 



M It was customary for young men going to war to seek supernatural assistance of the Old-Woman-Who 

 Never-Dies bundle owner and to promise a scalp for the ceremonial basket when successful in striking the 

 enemy. 



