# Folk-Lore Record/Volume 1/A Folk-tale and Various Superstitions of the Hidatsa Indians

A FOLK-TALE OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS.
NEAR the mouth of Burnt Creek, on the east bank of the Missouri, are the vestiges of some large round lodges, which stood there before the Indians came into the land. They were inhabited by several mysterious beings of great, power in sorcery. In one of the lodges lived the two great demi-gods Long Tail and Spotted Body; a woman lived with them, who took care of their lodge and who was their wife and sister: and these three were at first the only beings of their kind in the world. In a neighbouring lodge lived an evil monster named Big Mouth, "who had a great mouth and no head." He hated the members of Long Tail's lodge, and when he discovered that the woman was about to become a mother, he determined to attempt the destruction of her offspring.
When Long Tail and Spotted Body were absent on a hunt one day, Big Mouth entered their lodge, and, addressing the woman, said he was hungry. The woman was greatly frightened, but did not wish to deny him her hospitality; so she proceeded to broil him some meat on the coals. When the meat was cooked, she offered it to him on a wooden dish. He told her that, from the way his mouth was made, he could not eat out of a dish, and the only way she could serve him the food so that he could eat it, was by lying down and placing it on her side. She did as he intimated, when he immediately devoured the ​meat, and in doing so tore her in pieces. She died, or seemed to die; but the children thus rudely brought into the world were immortal. One of these he seized, and throwing him into the bottom of the lodge said, "Stay there for ever among the rubbish, and let your name be Atùtish. The other he took out and threw into a neighbouring spring, saying to him, "Your name is Mahash; stay there for ever, where you will love the mud and learn to eat nothing but the worms and reptiles of the spring."
When Long Tail and Spotted Body came home, they were horrified to find their sister slaughtered; they mourned her duly, and then placed her body on a scaffold, as these Indians do. After the funeral they returned hungry to the lodge, and put some meat on the fire to cook. As the pleasant odour of the cooking arose, they heard an infantile voice crying and calling for food. They sought and listened, and sought again, until at length they found Atùtish, whom they dragged forth into the light, and knew to be the child which they supposed was devoured or lost for ever. Long Tail then placed Atùtish on the ground, and, holding his hand some distance above the child's head, made a wish "that he would grow so high," and instantly the child attained the stature, mind, and knowledge of a boy about eight years old. Then Long Tail made many inquiries concerning what had happened to him and the whereabouts of his brother; but the child could give no information of what took place during the visit of Big Mouth.
In a day or two after this transaction, the elders made for the child a little stick and wheel (such as Indian children use in the game called by the Canadians of the Upper Missouri, roulette), and bade him play round in the neighbourhood of the lodge, while they went out to hunt again. While he was playing near the spring, he heard a voice calling to him and saying "miakas" (my elder brother). He looked in the direction from which the voice proceeded, and saw little Mahash looking out of the spring. Wanting a playmate, Atùtish invited him to come out and play. So Mahash came out, and the two brothers began to amuse themselves. But when Long Tail and his brother approached the lodge, on their return from the hunt, Mahash smelled ​them far off, rushed away like a frightened beast, and hid himself in the spring. When the elders returned, Atùtish told them all that happened while they were gone. They concluded that he of the spring must be their lost child, and devised a plan to rescue him, which they communicated to Atùtish.
Next morning they made another and smaller roulette-stick, for the enchanted child to play with. Then they divested themselves of their odour as much as possible, and hid themselves near the spring and to the leeward of it. When all was ready, Atutish went to the edge of the spring and cried aloud, "Mahash! do you want to come out?"
Soon the latter lifted his head cautiously out of the spring, raised his upper lip, showing his long white fangs, snuffed the air keenly, looked wildly around him, and drew back again into the water. Atùtish then went near where he had seen his brother rise and called again to him, but the child answered from the water that he feared to come out, as he thought he smelt the hunters. "Have no fear," said Atùtish; "the old men are gone out hunting and will not be back till night. I am here alone. Come out to the warm sunlight. We will have a good time playing, and I will give you something nice to eat."
Thus coaxed and reassured, the other ventured out, still looking mistrustfully around him. Atùtish then gave him a piece of boiled buffalo tongue to eat, which the little boy said was the best thing he had ever tasted. "Very well," said Atùtish, "let us play, and I will stake the rest of this tongue against some of your frogs and slugs on the game." Mahash agreed, and soon in the excitement of the play he forgot his fears. They played along with the roulette some time without much advantage on either side, until at length they threw their sticks so evenly that it was impossible to tell which was the furthest from the wheel. They disputed warmly, until Atùtish said, "Stoop down and look close and you will see that I have made the best throw." The other stooped over to observe; and, while his attention was thus engaged, his brother came behind the little fellow, seized him, and held him fast. Atutish then called to the concealed hunters, who ran up, threw a lariat around the struggling captive, and bound him firmly. Having secured the wild boy, their next task was ​to break the spell by which his tastes and habits were made so unnatural. To accomplish this, Long Tail and Spotted Body put him in the sweat-house, and there steamed him until he was almost exhausted. They then took him out and began to whip him severely. As they plied the lash they made wishes, that the keen scent would leave his nose, that the taste for reptiles would leave his mouth, that the fear of his own kind would leave his heart, &c. As they progressed with this performance, he suddenly cried out to Atùtish, "Brother, I remember myself now; I know who I am." When he said this he was released; and his first impulse was to run to the spring. He ran there; but when he reached the edge he stopped, for he found he no longer loved the black mud and the slimy water, and he returned to the lodge.
Long Tail then placed the twins side by side, and holding his extended hand, palm downwards, above their heads, a little further from the ground than on the previous occasion, wished that they would both be " so high;" when at once they grew to the size of boys about fourteen years old, and they grew in wisdom correspondingly. Then Long Tail made bows and hunting- arrows for the boys, and a pair of medicine-arrows for their protection and for use on extraordinary occasions, and he addressed them saying, "You are now big enough to protect yourselves. Go out on the prairie and hunt, and we will see which one of you will be the best hunter." After that they went out every day and became expert hunters.
Once, as they were looking for game among the hills, they came to a scaffold on which a corpse was laid. "There," said Atùtish, "is the body of our mother. She was murdered, no one knows how."
"Let us try the strength of our medicine arrows upon her," said Mahash, "perhaps we could bring her back to life." So saying he stepped close to the scaffold and shot straight up. As the arrow turned to fall, he cried out, "Take care, mother, or you will get hurt," and, as it descended near the body, the scaffold shook and a low groan was heard. Then Atùtish stepped nearly under the scaffold and shot up in the air. As his arrow turned to fall he cried out, "Mother! Mother! Jump quick or the arrow will strike you." At once she arose, jumped down from the scaffold, and, recognising her children, ​embraced them. The boys then asked her who was the author of their calamities, and how it all happened. She pointed to the lodge of Big Mouth, and related all the circumstances of her death. Upon heariug this, the boys swore they would be revenged. Their mother endeavoured to dissuade them, describing Big Mouth to them, assuring them that his medicine was potent, and that he certainly would destroy them if they went near him. They paid no attention to her remonstrances, but proceeded to plot the destruction of the monster.
Now this Big Mouth had a very easy way of making a living. He neither trapped nor hunted, nor took pains to cook his food. He simply lay on his back, and when a herd of deer came within sight of his lodge, or a flock of birds flew overhead, no matter how far distant, he turned towards them, opened his great mouth, aad drew in a big breath, when instantly they fell into his mouth and were swallowed. In a little while the boys had their plans arranged. They built a large fire, and heated some small boulders in it. Then they carried the stones to the top of his lodge, put them near the smoke-hole, and began lo imitate a flock of blackbirds. "Go away, little birds," said Big Mouth, "you are not fit to eat, and I am not hungry; but go away and let me sleep, or I will swallow you." "We are not afraid of you," said the boys; and they began to chirp again. At length Big Mouth got angry. He turned up his mouth, opened it wide, and, just as he began to draw his breath to suck them in, the boys stepped aside, and hurled the stones down into the lodge. "Oh, what sharp claws those birds hava! They are tearing my throat!" exclaimed the monster, as he swallowed the red-hot rocks. The next moment he roared with pain and rushed for his water-jars, drinking immense draughts; but the steam made by the water on the rocks swelled him up, and the more he drank the worse he swelled, until he burst and died.
The boys brought the body home, and, after they had danced sufficiently around it, their mother praised them for what they had done; but she said, "You must not be too venturesome. All these lodges around are inhabited by beings whose power in sorcery is great. You cannot always do as well as you have done this time. You ​should keep away from the rest of them. There is an old woman in particular whom you must avoid. She is as powerful as Big Mouth; but you cannot kill her in the same way as you killed him, for she catches her food, not in her mouth, but in a basket. Whenever she sees anything that she wants to eat she turns her basket towards it, and it drops in dead. If she sees a flock of wild geese among the clouds, no matter how high they fly, she can bring them down."
When the boys heard this, they said nothing in reply to their mother, but set off secretly to compass the death of the witch. They went to the lodge of the latter, and standing near the door, cried, "Grandmother, we have come to see you." "Go away, children, and don't annoy me," she replied. "Grandmother, you are very nice and good, and we like you. Won't you let us in?" continued the boys. "Oh, no," said she, "I don't want to hurt you; but begone, or I will kill you." Despite this threat, they remained, and again spoke to her, saying, "Grandmother, we have heard that you are very strong medicine, and that you have a wonderful basket that can kill anything. We can scarcely believe this. Won't you lend us the basket a little while until we see if we can catch some birds with it?" She refused the basket at first, but, after much coaxing and flattering, she handed it to them. No sooner were they in possession of the basket, than they turned it upon the witch herself, and she dropped into it dead.
After this exploit the mother again praised the boys, but again warned them to beware of the evil genii of the place which she described. One of these was a man with a pair of wonderful mocassins, with which he had only to walk round anything he wanted to kill. Another was a man with a magic knife, with which he could either cut or kill anything that he threw the knife at. These individuals they destroyed in the same manner that they overcame the basket-woman, by coaxing them to lend their magic property, and then slaying the owners with their own weapons. On each occasion the boys retained the charmed articles for their future use.
When all this was done, the old mother called her boys and told them there was but one more dangerous being that they had to guard themselves against. She said, "He lives in the sky where you cannot ​get at him; but he can hurt you, for his arm is so long that it reaches from the heavens to the earth. His name is Long Arm." "Very well," said the boys, "we will beware of him." One morning, soon after receiving this advice, they went out very early to hunt, but could find nothing to kill. They walked and ran many miles, until late in the day, when they became very tired and lay clown to sleep on the prairie. As was their custom, they stuck their medicine arrows in the ground, close beside them. The arrows possessed such a charm, that if any danger threatened the boys, they would fall to waken them. While the brothers lay asleep, Long Arm looked down from the clouds, and, beholding them, stretched his great arm down towards them. As the arm descended, the arrows fell hard upon the boys; but the latter were so tired and sleepy that they did not waken, and Long Arm grasped Atùtish and bore him to the sky. In a little while Mahash woke up and discovered, to his horror, that the warning arrows had fallen, and that his brother was gone. He looked round carefully on the prairie for the departing tracks of his brother, or for the tracks of the man or the beast that had captured him, but in vain. When at his wits' end, and almost in despair, he chanced to glance towards the sky, and there, on the face of a high white summer cloud, he saw the doubled track of Long Arm, where he came near the earth and went back. Mahash laid down his bow and arrow and other accoutrements, retaining only his medicine knife, which he concealed in his shirt. He next stuck his magic arrows into the ground and got on top of them, and then he crouched low, strained every muscle, and sprang upwards with all his might. He jumped high enough to catch hold of the ragged edge of the cloud. From that time he scrambled higher, until he at last got on Long Arm's trail, which he followed. For fear of recognition he wished himself smaller, and, becoming a little toddling child, moved on till he came to a great crowd, moving in one direction, with much talk and excitement. He ran up to an old woman who walked a little apart, and asked her what was the matter. She informed him that they had just captured one of the children of the new race which was growing on the earth—a boy who had destroyed many favoured genii, and that they were about to kill and ​burn him. "Grandmother," said Mahash, "I would like to see this, but I am too little to walk there. Will you carry me?" She took him on her back and brought him to the place where the crowd had gathered. There he saw his brother tied to a stake, and a number of people dancing round him. He thought if he could only reach the post unobserved, and touch the cords with his medicine-knife, he could release his brother; but for some time he was puzzled how to do it. At length he slid down from the old woman's back, and wished that for a little time he might turn to an ant. He became one, and, as such, crawled through the feet of the crowd and up to the post, where he cut the cords that bound Atutish. When the latter was free, Mahash resumed his proper shape, and they both ran as hard as they could for the edge of the clouds. The crowd pursued them; but, as each foremost runner approached, Mahash threw his knife and disabled him. At last Long Arm started after the brothers, running very fast. As he came within his arm's length of them, he reached out to grasp one of them. Ashe did so, Mahash again threw his knife, and severed the great arm from the shoulder. The boys got back safely to the earth. They, having ridded themselves of all their enemies, lived in peace, and in time they moved away from that locality.—"Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians" pp. 63-70.
VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIDATSA INDIANS.
HEY have a great many superstitious notions, yet I believe their superstitions are neither more numerous, nor more absurd, than those of the peasantry of some European nations of to-day. There is, too, among them every degree of faith in these fancies, from almost perfect scepticism to the most humble credulity. I will not describe all of their superstitions known to me, but will refer, for illustration, to a few of them. They believe in the existence and visibility of human and other ghosts, yet ​they seem to have no terror of graveyards, and but little of mortuary remains. You may frighten children after nightfall by shouting nohidahi (ghost), but will not scare the aged. They have much faith in dreams, but usually regard as oracular those only which come after prayer, sacrifice, and fasting. They have queer notions respecting the effects of different articles of diet, thus: An expectant mother believes that if she eats part of a mole or shrew, her child will have small eyes; that if she eats a piece of porcupine, her child will be inclined to eat too much when it grows up; that if she partakes of the flesh of the turtle, her offspring will be slow or lazy, &c.; but they do not suppose such articles of food affect the immediate consumer. They have faith in witchcraft, and think that a sorcerer may injure any person, no matter how far distant, by acts upon an effigy or upon a lock of the victim's hair.
It is believed by some of the Hidatsa, that every human being has four souls in one. They account for the phenomena of gradual death, where the extremities are apparently dead while consciousness remains, by supposing the four souls to depart one after another at different times. When dissolution is complete, they say that all the souls are gone, and have joined together again outside of the body. I have heard a Minnetaree quietly discussing this doctrine with an Assinneboine, who believed in only one soul to each body.
Every man in this tribe, as in all other neighbouring tribes, has his personal medicine, which is usually some animal. On all war parties, and often on hunts and other excursions, he carries the head, claws, stuffed skin, or other representative of his medicine with him, and seems to regard it in much the same light that Europeans in former days regarded, and in some cases still regard, protective charms. To insure the future fleetness of some promising young colt, they tie to the colt's neck a small piece of deer or antelope horn. The rodent teeth of the beaver arc regarded as potent charms, and are worn by little girls on their necks to make them industrious.—"Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians," pp. 49, 50.