462 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



the authority to learn and to relate the sacred myths belonging to the 

 ceremony and to speak with added authority when disciplining younger 

 clansmen. 



The rites as performed by the Mandan and Hidatsa show close 

 similarities that point to a common development from a single source. 

 Each employed the sacred red sticks, but the Mandan exacted a 

 virginity test that seems to be entirely lacking with the Hidatsa. 

 Although the rites for both tribes are theoretically for the attraction 

 of buffaloes to the villages and the increase of the calf crop by bringing 

 the animals out of the various Buffalo Home Buttes (a symbolic 

 fertility rite), each tribe had its characteristic sacred myths and 

 rituals.'^ 



Ceremonial sexual license was not limited solely to performances of 

 this ceremony and age-grade society transfers but was individually 

 practiced on the initiative both of young ambitious men and old widow- 

 ers. A young man desiring to undertake some extremely hazardous 

 undertaking, such as a military expedition far from home to avenge 

 the death of a brother or other clansman, with the consent of his wife, 

 often sought supernatural powers of an old man standing in the relation 

 of "father" to obtain his supernatural powers to supplement his own. 

 In this case, the old man was taken to the young man's lodge and fed, 

 after which the young man and his family retired to another lodge 

 until morning, leaving the "father" with one young wife. Irrespective 

 of the sacred bundles which the old man possessed on these occasions, 

 he impersonated one of the 12 buffalo bulls as represented by the bull 

 skulls in all major tribal bundles. They were left together during the 

 night with the doors barred. Although it was not uncommon for 

 one of the red stick carriers to refuse intercourse during the ceremonies 

 in fear of exhausting his supply of supernatural powers — preferring 

 instead to relinquish the red sticks — it was not considered proper to 

 refuse when invited to a young man's lodge. The young man returned 

 to the lodge in the morning and ordered food, fine clothing, and horses 

 for the ceremonial father who, in return, prayed for his son to be 

 successful in his undertakings. This practice was so widespread with 

 the Hidatsa and Mandan as to be viewed as a universal pattern. 

 Whites were believed to possess greater supernatural powers than 

 Indians because of their richer material culture and technology, and 

 visitors to the villages were often given the same courtesies, both 

 publicly during the performance of the rites and privately in the homes. 

 Many a trader who called at the villages soon learned the cultural 

 pattern of praying for their "sons" whenever some young woman met 

 his fancy. Many traders, therefore, not only spent pleasant nights 



'* For the Mandan version see Bowers, 1950, ch. 14. 



