322 
Of tlancing societies, both the purely social and those with 
religious functions, the Blackfoot possessed even more than the 
Assiniboine. An outstanding feature in all these societies, whether 
dancing or military, was the formal acquisition by purchase of the 
ceremonial objects and the songs that went along with membership. 
The same formal transference of ceremonial objects pervaded the 
entire religious life of the Blackfoot, giving it a character quite dis- 
tinct from that of other plains' tribes.^ It affected even the signifi- 
cance of the annual sun-dance; foi’ whatever may have been the 
earlier history of this festival (and doubtless it was a com])osite of 
many different rites), among the historical Blackfoot it was primarily 
the fulfilment of a vow, made by a virtuous married woman at a 
time of crisis, to purchase a sacred sun-dance bundle from some other 
woman in the tribe. The formal erection of a central pole loaded 
with offerings to the Great Spirit, the self-torture of warriors, and 
the ceremonial cutting of buffalo tongues by women who had dedi- 
cated themselves to this form of thanksgiving, these and other 
episodes in the festival, such as the annual dances of the various 
societies, all seemed to the Blackfoot subsidiary to that one indispen- 
sable event, the transfer, with due ceremony, of a sacred medicine- 
bundle.- 
These sun-dance bundles, however, formed but one group in a 
numerous sci’ies of medicine-bundles, the other most outstanding 
groups being the beaver and pipe bundles. The pipe bundles were 
associated with the worship of the thunfler, the beaver with tobacco 
cultivation; for the planting of tobacco was a sacred ceremony among 
the plains’ tribes, and its smoking on formal occasions just as neces- 
sary a ritual as it was among the Irocpioians.'' A. medicinc-))undle 
might be anything from a few feathers wrapped in skin or cloth to 
a multitude of miscellaneous objects — skins of animals and birds, 
roots, rocks, stone pipes, etc. — kept inside a large rawhide bag, in 
which every article had a definite significance and called for a special 
song whenever its owner exposed it to the light. Owners and their 
wives incurred many obligations and taboos, but they enjoyed con- 
siderable prestige in the tribe and believed that possession of a sacred 
1 Except Ibe Sareee. 
2 The buffalo-hiuit that genernlly preceded the Blackfoot and Sareee snn-dance lacked the cere- 
monial characler of Iho currosponrlinfr himt amonn ilie Assiniboine, witli whom it was really a i>ail 
of the festival- 
3 a. Oar irl Thompson's Narrative, p. 365. 
