And you think you are a brave young man!
Behold you have joined the Dog society;
Therefore, I call you just plain dog!
These songs from the watchers’ stage we called mi´daxika, or gardeners’ songs. The words of these I have just given you we called love-boy words; and they were intended to tease.
There was another class of songs sung from the watchers’ stage that did not have love-boy words. I will give you one of these, but to make it intelligible, I must first explain a custom of my tribe.
Clan Cousins’ Custom
Let us suppose that a woman of the Tsi´stska Doxpa´ka marries a man of the Midipa´di clan. Their child will be a Tsi´stska; for we Hidatsas reckon every child to belong to the clan of his mother; and the members of the mother’s clan will be clan sisters and clan brothers to her child.
Another woman of the tribe, of what clan does not matter, also marries a Midipa´di husband; and they have a child. The child of the first mother and the child of the second we reckon as makutsati, or clan cousins, since their fathers being of the same clan, are clan brothers.
In old times these clan cousins had a custom of teasing one another; especially was this teasing common between young men and young women. For example, a young man, unlucky in war, might be passing the gardens and hear some mischievous girl, his clan cousin, singing a song taunting him for his ill success. From any one else this would be taken for the deepest insult; but seeing that the singer was his clan cousin, the young man only called out good humoredly, “Sing louder, cousin!”
I can best explain this custom by telling you a story.