§ 341. The Hidatsa believe in the Man who Never Dies, or Lord of Life, Ehsicka-Wahaddish,[254] literally, the first man, who dwells in the Rocky Mountains. He made all things. Another being whom they venerate is called the Grandmother. She roams over the earth. She had some share in creation, though an inferior one, for she created the toad and the sand-rat. She gave the Hidatsa two kettles, which they still preserve as a sacred treasure and employ as charms or fetiches on certain occasions. She directed the ancestors of the present Indians to preserve the kettles and to remember the great waters, whence came all the animals dancing. The red-shouldered oriole (Psaracolius phoeniceus) came at that time out of the water, as well as the other birds which still sing along the banks of rivers. The Hidatsa, therefore, look on all these birds as “medicine” for their corn patches, and attend to their songs. When these birds sing the Hidatsa, remembering the direction of the Grandmother, fill the two kettles with water, dance and bathe, in order to commemorate the great flood. When their fields are threatened with a great drought they celebrate a “medicine” feast with the two kettles, as they beg for rain. The shamans are still paid, on such occasions, to sing for four days together in the huts, while the kettles remain full of water.

§ 342. The sun, or as they term it, “the sun of the day,” is a great power. They do not know what it really is, but when they are about to undertake some enterprise they sacrifice to it and also to the moon, which they call “the sun of the night.” The morning star, Venus, they regard as the child of the moon, and they account it as a great power. They affirm that it was originally a Hidatsa, being the grandson of the Old Woman who Never Dies.[255]

§ 343. Matthews[256] found that the object of the greatest reverence among the Hidatsa was, perhaps, the Itsika-mahidiś, the First Made, or First in Existence. They assert that he made all things, the stars, sun, the earth, the first representatives of each species of animals and plants, but that no one made him. He also, they say, instructed the forefathers of the tribes in all the ceremonies and mysteries now known to them. They sometimes designate him as Itaka-te-taś, or Old Man Immortal.

ANIMISM.

§ 344. If we use the term worship in its most extended sense it may be said that * * * (the Hidatsa) worship everything in nature. Not man alone, but the sun, the moon, the stars, all the lower animals, all trees and plants, rivers and lakes, many bowlders and other separated rocks, even some hills and buttes which stand alone—in short, everything not made by human hands, which has an independent being, or can be individualized, possesses a spirit, or, more properly, a shade.

To these shades some respect or consideration is due, but not equally to all. For instance, the shade of the cottonwood, the greatest tree of the Upper Missouri Valley, is supposed to possess an intelligence which may, if properly approached, assist them in certain undertakings; but the shades of shrubs and grasses are of little importance. When the Missouri, in its spring-time freshets, cuts down its bank and sweeps some tall tree into its current, it is said that the spirit of the tree cries while the roots yet cling to the land and until the tree falls into the water. Formerly it was considered wrong to cut down one of these great trees, and, when large logs were needed, only such as were found fallen were used; and to-day some of the more credulous old men declare that many of the misfortunes of the people are the result of their modern disregard for the rights of the living cottonwood. The sun is held in great veneration, and many valuable sacrifices are made to it.[257]

WORSHIP OF THE ELEMENTS, ETC.

§ 345. This is in substantial accord with what Maximilian was told, as will be seen from the following:

In the sweat bath the shaman, after cutting off a joint of the devotee’s fingers, takes a willow twig, goes to the dishes containing food, dips the twig in each and throws a part of the contents in the direction of the four winds, as offerings to the Lord of Life, the fire, and the divers superhuman powers.[258]

SERPENT WORSHIP.

§ 346. The Hidatsa make occasional offerings to the great serpent that dwells in the Missouri River by placing poles in the river and attaching to them sundry robes or colored blankets. The tradition of this great serpent resembles the Mandan tradition, but with some differences.[259]