30 BuiUiin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVIII, 



she received a horse for it. She once began a robe with one 

 hundred lines (bataat'sa°llxt), to be given to Left-Hand. 

 She had marked one hundred and worked thirty when her 

 son-in-law died. She buried the robe with him. Later she 

 learned that it was not right to b\iry this highest kind of 

 robe with any one. It gives her vigor now to think of her 

 past life and what she has accomplished. 



There are seven sacred bags owned by old women. These 

 contain incense, paint, and implements for marking and sew- 

 ing. They are painted red, and kept wrapped. They cor- 

 respond to seven sacred bags kept by seven old men, and 

 containing rattles, paint, and perhaps other objects. These 

 women's bags are used in ornamenting buffalo-robes and 

 tents, when certain ceremonies are gone through. 



The following account was obtained from an old woman 

 who possessed one of the sacred bags. 



"Backward, the mother of Little- Raven, was the owner of 

 my bag before it was transferred to me. This bag was owned 

 successively by Night- Killer, Bihiiha ('Female Deer'?), Back- 

 ward, and myself. When I was about to obtain this bag, I 

 provided food, clothing, and horses (to be given away), and 

 called all the old women who then had bags. There were 

 seven. They were River-Woman, Large-Head, Thread- 

 Woman, Sore-Legs, Flying- Woman, another Thread- Woman, 

 and Backward. A tent was put up. The clothing was laid 

 all around the inside of the tent, the food was set near the 

 fire. I also provided four knives and some fat. The seven 

 old women sat around the tent, each with her bag. I went 

 to each in turn, putting my hand on the top of her head, and 

 prayed. I said that I wished to get a bag in the straight way. 

 Before they opened their bags they spit hapawaanaxu on 

 them (this is a root which is chewed fine, and usually spit on 

 sacred objects before they are handled). Then incense was 

 burned. One of the women took fat and rubbed it with 

 paint; then, holding her hands palm to palm, and turning 

 them from side to side, she painted four spots on my face, and 

 a fifth (in the centre) on the nose ; then she painted five spots 

 in similar position (that of a quincunx) on the top of my head. 



