Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 441 



People would see that and know that the couple would be happy when they 

 married. 



The people said that Blood Man did right when he killed the foolish young 

 man for, long before, Two Men had come to save their son. Unknown Man. 

 At that time the buffaloes had taken Unknown Man far to the north where evil 

 spirits lived, but Two Men killed the evil spirits, sparing the buffalo's life when 

 the buffalo promised to come whenever the people ran out of food. At that time 

 Buffalo said to Two Men, "If a human being promises me anything and does 

 not do it, I will destroy that person." 



That was why the buffaloes came and caused the foolish young man to be killed 

 by Blood Man. The ceremony passed down from father to son, all rights in 

 the ceremony coming from Blood Man. Blood Man grew to old age and died 

 in the village. By that time sons had taken over his rights. 



The Imitating Buffalo rites were believed to have originated at 

 Knife River with the AwatLxa group, according to some informants. 

 This belief is founded on the concepts that: (1) The ceremony fulfilled 

 the same function as the Painted Red Stick ceremony which was 

 not celebrated at Awatixa, only at the other two vUlages; and (2) 

 Blood Man was a contemporary to Black Wolf who founded the 

 eagle-trapping rites which were not celebrated by the Awaxawi and 

 Hidatsa untU they had left the eastern lake region for the Missouri 

 when they acquired the rites and skills from the Awatixa and Mandan. 

 Whatever may have been the development and diffusion of this 

 ceremony, during the past century individuals inherited bundle 

 rites through their fathers at each of the three vUlages. Four bundle 

 liues were from Hidatsa, three from AwatLxa, and one from Awaxawi. 

 That the Hidatsa survivors of the epidemic of 1837 outnumbered 

 those from Awatixa by a ratio of more than 2 to 1 suggests a greater 

 popularity of the rites at the latter village. 



The Hidatsa do not consider the ceremony to be as ancient as 

 those relating to either the Sacred Arrow or Exodus myths although 

 they recognize characters represented in the rites as very ancient. 

 Of the eight bundle lines surviving the smallpox epidemics, individuals 

 performing these rites had, in addition to rights in the Imitating 

 Buffalo ceremony, other important tribal bundle possessions. There 

 were many individuals possessing various tribal hereditary bundles 

 who had never performed this specific ceremony. It is important to 

 recognize that, whUe all sacred bundles belonging to the traditional 

 hereditary group had buffalo skuUs, few had bought rights in the 

 Imitating Buffalo ceremony. This is due, it would appear, to several 

 buffalo ritual traditions which existed as independent units or as 

 segments of other rituals. We find the Calf Wedge myth defining 

 the practice of arranging buffalo skulls in groups of four, thus relating 

 this feature to the Imitating Buffalo and Red Stick ceremonies, 

 whUe similar shrines arranged by other bundle owners were symbolic 

 of the buffaloes of the four seasons. 



