436 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



When the time for the ceremony had come, the people went out onto the prairies 

 near Ghost Singing Butte to await the horses which Swallow and Hawk promised. 

 They were camped in a circle when Swallow and Hawk arrived with a gray staUion, 

 a bay mare, and her three bay colts. The people examined the horses and said 

 that they looked much Uke dogs except that they were much larger and stronger. 



Speaking of the mare and her colts, the people said, "The hair is red. They 

 are not buffaloes or bears. They are holy animals of some kind. They are red- 

 haired-dogs." And so they were called icuwasuka. 



The people said, "We suffered from hunger and this young man stayed here 

 and had everything provided for us. Now we have these horses and the corn 

 scaffolds are built and loaded with buffalo meat. We are not in need of any- 

 thing. We are at the end of the world, for it is like finding a new world to find 

 these horses which will be so useful to our people. Now we will be able to do 

 almost anything." 



Then the rites to Swallow and Hawk were performed, after which the people 

 returned to the Knife River. 



According to Four Dancers, sacred myths were likewise associated 

 with the other buttes mentioned in the rites. Whereas offerings to 

 the characters represented in sacred bundles were ordinarily placed 

 on poles within or adjacent to the summer villages, offerings made 

 to the Earthnaming bundle were placed near the various buttes 

 while out from the villages on summer buffalo hunts. Of these 

 buttes, four were known as the "Buffalo Spu"it Places": Buffalo 

 Comes Out Butte; Singer Butte (Killdeer Mountains); Buffalo Home 

 Butte; and Kosebud Butte. At each of these buttes, offerings of 

 feathers from the speckled eagle were made to increase the buffalo 

 herds. The feathers were tied in bundles to buffalo skulls placed 

 near caves situated under the overhanging cliffs. 



The sacred bundle belonging at Hidatsa village was owned by 

 Guts who, due to loss of prestige from bad luck in war, passed it on 

 to his young son, Bobtail Bull. The other bundle, kept at Awaxawi, 

 was held by Half-Smoked-Tipi in 1837, he having bought the bundle 

 from his father, Raven Necklace.^^ He sold it to Poor Wolf, his son, 

 shortly after 1837. The bundle rites exceeded all other tribal rites 

 in complexity and had integrated into a related complex most buffalo 

 rites when the aboriginal culture broke down. Inheritance was from 

 father to son, but, unlike most other ceremonies, training, instructions, 

 and participation in the various rituals were begun at an early age 

 in order to become qualified to assume the father's role later. It was 

 customary for a man to train several sons simultaneously for bundle 

 ownership, and instruction was continued for several years. In this 

 sense the preliminaries closely resembled the practices of the Mandan 

 who taught the lore and rituals of their various tribal rites by sections 

 or segments untU the entire ceremonial complex was mastered. Poor 

 Wolf and Bobtail BuU often remarked to their children that they 



» He was named after the bundle. 



