Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 427 



Each faster was expected to give something to a male of the father's 

 clan and to receive his blessing. These activities occupied much of 

 the day. It was felt that the success of any ceremony was, in part, 

 measured by the degree of cooperation between the fasters, the 

 clansmen, and the age-grade society of the buyer in furnishing valu- 

 able property to be given to clan fathers of the various fasters. There 

 was a feeling that all of the major bundle owners participating should 

 have an opportunity to bless at least one "son." Some fasters even 

 went beyond the clan and sought the "blessings" of males of the op- 

 posite moiety who had not been called upon to receive goods. When 

 situations, due to the limitations of clan membership, arose in which 

 one had few or no opportunities to pray for a son because none 

 of the fasters' fathers belonged to his clan, there was a property 

 transfer within the group itself or one being called on to pray for a 

 "son" relinquished his right publicly to another of good or superior 

 reputation. Nor did the goods received long remain in the hands 

 of the major bundle owners. They shared on the spot vtith others 

 who stood in a father-son relationship to them and it was customary 

 to share liberally with the feeble men and women, addressed as 

 grandfather or grandmother, who gathered near the door of the 

 ceremonial lodge on these occasions.*^ There was a rapid exchange 

 of property during and immediately following the celebration of all 

 major ceremonies; in this respect the Sunset Wolf ceremony was no 

 exception. Hoarding goods in excess of one's neighbors was 

 frowned upon. 



Meanwhile, the Holy Women and berdaches erected a mound at 

 the outskirts of the village and removed the cacti and grass around 

 it for the "last dance" (fig. 7). These women — and men clothed as 

 women — wore their low-necked ceremonial dresses with a braid of 

 sweetgrass tied at the shoulder and magpie feathers fastened in their 

 hair. They carried bone hoes and wooden digging sticks slung over 

 their shoulders. When the giving of property to clan fathers was 

 ended, the bundle maker sent the director of the ceremony to the 

 lodge where the Holy Women and berdaches had congregated, after 

 erecting the mound, to clean up and paint themselves for the 'last 

 dance."*^ 



When the Holy Women were ready, they sent word to the bundle 

 maker. These women, together with their singer, made the traditional 

 four stops to sing as they went along and reached the dancing grounds 

 first, led by the Wolf Woman impersonator. They stood on the east 

 side of the cleared space. Then the bundle owners went out followed 



*« See the kinship system tor application of grandparent terms. 



" Cherry Necklace was singer tor these women In more recent times and they met at his lodge. After he 

 died, no new singer bought into the society so the women did their own singing. 



