Bowers] HIDATSA SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL ORGANIZATION 451 



the animals together and turned them toward the river valley and 

 wide bottoms with the corral at one end. The women and children 

 formed a line along the edge of the timber where they concealed them- 

 selves until the animals had run down from the high hills. As soon 

 as the herds came down from the hills and attempted to go through 

 the trees the people stood up and shouted to turn them. In the mean- 

 time, the faster runners who had brought up the rear turned them 

 away from the hills. The only open area was at the wide neck to the 

 corral concealed below the bank. Antelopes traveled so rapidly that 

 careful timing by the large number of concealed people stationed in 

 long lines was necessary. There was not, however, the danger of 

 accident attendant with the buffalo corral. Once driven into the 

 corral, the animals were clubbed. There was no division within the 

 corral by moieties. Instead, a headman for each moiety took charge 

 and divided the animals according to the number of families and the 

 animals captured. 



PAINTED RED STICK 



This ceremony was observed by Lewis and Clark. It was described 

 in detail 28 years later by Maximilian (1906, vol. 23, p. 334) who 

 wrote that — 



Another very remarkable medicine festival is that for attracting the herds of 

 buffaloes, which is usually celebrated in the autumn, or winter. I shall describe 

 this festival, as an eye-witness among the Manitaries, where it is observed pre- 

 cisely in the same manner as among the Mandans. At this festival they leave 

 their wives to the older men, and individual Indians do the same on certain 

 occasions, when they desire to ask good wishes for the attainment of some object 

 they have in view. A man, in such a case, goes, with his pipe, and accompa- 

 nied by his wife, who wears no clothes except her buffalo robe, to another hut. 

 The wife carries a dish of boiled maize, which she sets down before a third per- 

 son, and the man does the same with his pipe. The woman then passes the 

 palm of her hand down the whole arm of the person favoured in this manner, 

 takes him by the hand, and he must follow her to a retired spot, generally to 

 the forest surrounding the huts in the winter time; after which she returns and 

 repeats the same process, often with eight or ten men. As soon as the man so 

 favoured has resumed his seat, the person who asks his good wishes presents 

 his pipe to him that he may smoke; whereupon he expresses his best wishes for 

 the success of the undertaking or project in hand. By way of returning thanks, 

 his arm is again stroked. 



The rites as described by Maximilian applied to later times when 

 my informants were young. This ceremony was often spoken of as 

 the "Walking with the Daughters-in-law" ceremony from the prac- 

 tice of sending one's wife to an older man of the father's clan and 

 inviting him outside for ceremonial sexual intercourse. In historic 

 times there were two active Singer bundles for the ceremony owned 

 by Bobtail Bull and Poor Wolf. The former traced his rights back 

 to Hidatsa village through his father. Guts, and the latter bought 



