Fig. 745.—Fruit gatherers. Hidatsa.
Fig. 745 is a copy of a sketch made by Lean-Wolf, second chief of the Hidatsa, and shows the manner in which the women carry baskets used in gathering wild plums, bull-berries, and other small fruits. The baskets are usually made of thin splints of wood, and very similar in manner of construction to the well known bushel-basket of our eastern farmers.
Fig. 746.—Hunting antelope. Hidatsa.
Fig. 746 was also made by Lean-Wolf, and illustrates the old manner of hunting antelope and deer. The hunter would disguise himself by covering his head with the head and skin of an antelope, and so be enabled to approach the game near enough to use his bow and arrow.
Fig. 747.—Hunting buffalo. Hidatsa.
In a similar manner the Hidatsa would mask themselves with a wolf skin to enable them to approach buffalo. This is illustrated in Fig. 747, which is a reproduction of a drawing made by the above-mentioned chief.
The next group of figures illustrates the custom of gaining and afterwards counting coups or hits, the French expression, sometimes spelled by travelers “coo,” being generally adopted. This is an honor gained by hitting an enemy, whether dead or alive, with an ornamented lance, or sometimes a stick, carried for the purpose as part of a warrior’s equipment. These sticks or wands are about 12 feet long, often of willow, stripped of leaves and bark, and each having some distinguishing objects, such as feathers, bells, brightly-colored cloth, or else painted in a special manner. Further remarks on this custom appear in Chapter XIII, Section [4].