466 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



one man to fix up the hair and put the robes over the poles. They painted the 

 sage for the cheeks and forehead, using red paint. 



When taking the clothing to the place where the posts were to be erected, they 

 saw the j'oung man's tracks and the spot where the others had traveled, the dis- 

 tance of their tracks being the range of the arrow. They cleared off the snow and 

 built a fire to thaw the ground so that the posts could be set up. The posts were 

 set up facing the south for that was the direction the two people faced to return 

 to the sky. 



The young man smoked sweetgrass and said, "I have the clothing that you 

 wanted; there are two complete outfits. I have put them up as you wanted me to 

 do, begging that the buffaloes will come soon." Then he used the smoke from the 

 sweetgrass as incense for the clotliing. 



He said to the 10 men standing there, "I will have the buffaloes come soon. In 

 the future our people can go through this territory after game. In the spring we 

 will have rains for our crops. If our enemies come, we will get the advantage of 

 them. There will be no sickness among our children and we will have many 

 children." Then he directed the 10 men to go home saying, "I am going to cry 

 here around these posts. I may get a dream. Announce in the village that 4 

 nights from now, all the people must tie up their dogs." 



He cried all night and returned to his lodge in the morning. He did that for 3 

 nights. On the fourth night he told the old men to stay in their lodges. 



Late in the night one man looked outside and said, "It is snowing hard but I 

 heard a noise outside." 



Another went out and came back saying, "There is a buffalo just outside; he 

 chased me into the entrance." 



They took up their bows and arrows, killed the buffalo, butchered it right there 

 and had a feast even though it was not very fat, for the buffaloes breed until late 

 in the fall and are not very fat in winter. 



After that the people put up offerings at this point regularly and the place was 

 known as "Place Where they Put Offerings for the Buffalo." 



The young man was called Holy- Young-Man after meeting the two spirits. 

 When he was old, they called him Holy Man. The reason the spirits told him to 

 watch until they went out of sight was that if he did that he would have a long life. 

 After that the buffaloes came into the camp and the people cured much meat to 

 take back to the Knife River villages. Before the enemies came, the young man 

 foretold that they were coming. Fifteen enemies were killed and he was a chief 

 after that. 



He kept buffalo skulls and bones of the neck which he would smoke with sweet- 

 grass if the buffaloes went far off and they would come back. The people would 

 come up from Knife River often to renew the shrine whenever someone dreamed of it. 



After the smallpox of 1837, the people of Hidatsa village on the Knife River 

 wandered around for 7 years looking for a place to have a village. Some thought 

 they should reunite with the River Crows, but the Awatixa and Awaxawi did not 

 want to leave their villages and abandon their gardens. 



Four Bears said at that time, "Since these holy people came to this place, it 

 should be a lucky place. The people have been putting up offerings there for a 

 long time. I think we should take the people up there and put up a new village 

 where we [the three Hidatsa village groups] can live together." 



So the people moved to the place and built Fishhook Village on the spot where 

 the two spirits were seen and the people were lucky in driving off their enemies. 



