Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 429 



breechcloth for the last dance. The dance consumed much time smce 

 it stopped whenever a man fell unconscious. At the end of 100 

 songs, the director of the ceremony stopped the dancing. 



Usually only a few fasters could hold out to the end and the bundle 

 buyer was expected to be among them. For this reason, the older 

 men never authorized one to perform the rites until they were assured, 

 on the basis of previous instances of fasting and torturing, that the 

 candidate could endure through to the end of the ceremony. His 

 torturing was not as severe as that inflicted on the other fasters since 

 he was not obliged to drag buffalo skulls and rarely did so. Moreover, 

 the clan brother, dressed and painted in the same manner as 

 the bundle buyer, substituted in many of the dances, thus giving 

 the buyer an opportunity to conserve his strength for the last dance. 



When the song had been sung through 100 times, the cleansing rites 

 terminated the ceremony. First the fasters were sprinkled, followed 

 by those who had participated as singers, the director of the ceremony 

 using the red grass and water for this rite. Then the director of the 

 ceremony, the bundle maker, bundle buyer, and the clan brother 

 assistant returned to the ceremonial lodge to be cleansed either with 

 the grass or by a sweat lodge rite. When the latter method was used, 

 these four people, together with the latter two officers' wives, met at 

 the bundle maker's lodge where he took them into his sweat lodge, 

 cleansed them, fitted them out with new clothes and then set food 

 before them. 



The bundle buyer and the assisting clan brother received identical 

 bundles. Articles in the bundle were: A coyote cap decorated with 

 two raven feathers ; four coyote manes with feet attached, to be worn 

 around the ankles and wrists ; a wolf hide ; two canes with four dark 

 strips, and made of chokecherry limbs; white clay; red gi'ass; and a 

 buffalo skull. Bundles were somewhat more numerous at Hidatsa 

 than at Awatixa and none were reported for the survivors of the 

 Awaxawi village. There is no evidence that the ceremony was 

 performed in the Mandan villages prior to 1845 although the Mandan 

 did have rites resembling those of the Sunrise Wolf described above. 

 After 1845 Iron Eyes, a Mandan, was permitted to perform the Sunset 

 rites at Fishhook Village when he had dreamed repeatedly of the 

 Sunset Wolves. This was an exceptional case and his sons did not 

 buy to perpetuate the line. 



The rites were important since they provided the Hidatsa with a 

 second major outlet*^ for group tasting during the summer. The 

 Mandans, on the other hand, had only one outlet for formal group 

 fasting — the medium of the Okipa ceremony. For Awaxawi vUlage 



« The NaxplkE being the first outlet. 



