From Battey we learn that in the seventies of the last century the Kiowa had a police organization designed to prevent the young men from going on raids that might bring trouble upon the tribe.

... a strong guard of their soldiers were continually watching, day and night, while in camp, to prevent any such enterprise from being undertaken. In moving from place to place, these soldiers marched on each side of the main body, while a front guard went before, and a rear guard behind, thus preventing any from straggling away.

A corresponding body regulated the buffalo hunt.

The soldiers, going out first, surrounded a tract of country in which were a large herd of buffalo; and no one might chase a buffalo past this ring guard on pain of having his horse shot by the soldiers.[2]

Clark merely lists the names of five men's societies.[3]

In Rev. Methvin's biography of my chief informant there is a brief chapter on military societies,[4] but as these data were revised and amplified in connection with my own inquiries, they need not be summarized as there presented.

Our principal sources on this subject, however, are Mr. Mooney's statements.[5] These largely corroborate my own notes and will be presented with them so far as they do not coincide.

The older literature cited above does not in any way contradict the general results I obtained independently, which may be summarized as follows.

In recent times the Kiowa had six men's societies and two women's societies. There once existed in the time of one informant's greatgrandfather an additional men's society, the qo´+itËm, "Kiowa's Bone"(?). The members of this organization represented each a buffalo bull, except for the leader, who (though also a man) represented a buffalo cow. In a fight, if this leader stopped to stand his ground, all the others were obliged to do the same, even at the risk of death. Thus all of them were killed, and the people were afraid so that they no longer kept up the organization.

The six men's societies of recent times were: the Rabbits (fula´nyu); Shepherds (alto´yuhe); Rulers (?) of Horses (tsË`ta´nmÂ); Berries[6] (tÁ'ipËko); Black Feet (tuÑk´uÑqot'); ? Horses (q'o´i'tsË`Ñko). Of these the first-mentioned comprised all the little boys[7] in the tribe, while the last society in the list is superior to the others in social prestige, being composed exclusively of eminent warriors. The rest are of the same rank. Mr. Mooney at one time believed that the Rabbits "were afterward promoted, according to merit or the necessities of war, in regular progression to higher ranks."[8] In a more recent statement, however, he corroborates my own information that "the next four societies ... were all of about equal rank, varying only according to the merit or reputation of the officers at any particular time."[9] The societies thus did not form a graded series in any sense. As a boy grew up any one of the four coÖrdinate societies might make him join. Some men never advanced from the status of a Rabbit, for if a boy was not considered the right sort he was not asked to join the adult men's organizations. There were only a few individuals who were barred in this way, however; every Indian man of any social standing became a member of some society. Later some other society might induce him to change his membership. If he was especially brave, he might be taken into the q'o´i'tsË`Ñko. Except for the Rabbits, age had nothing to do with membership, nor was membership purchased; further the societies did not offer gifts to the individual sought as a member, thus differing from the Crow societies.

The societies met only during the period between a sun dance announcement and the sun dance itself, but this interval differed greatly in length, the announcement being sometimes made very soon after the consummation of the preceding ceremony while at other times it was only made immediately before the performance announced. During the period defined the societies met very frequently, one member inviting the others one day for a feast, and the rest following suit on other days. The q'o´i'tsË`Ñko met less frequently than the rest. A man could only belong to one society at a time (except in the case of the adult leaders of the Rabbits). Since the Rabbits included all the young boys in the tribe, they were very numerous. On the other hand, the q'o´i'tsËÑko, owing to the special qualifications for membership, were very few,—only ten according to Mr. Mooney and from fifteen to twenty according to Martinez, while two Indians set the number at thirty. The last-mentioned informants set the average membership of the other organizations at forty or fifty, while Martinez's estimate is from thirty to forty.

There was no such rivalry between any two societies in times of war as has been described for the Crow Indians (this volume, p. 174). Sometimes at the time of the sun dance any two societies might engage in a kicking-fight, the object of which was to teach the young Indians not to run away from the enemy but to stand their ground and fight. This is doubtless the performance referred to by Battey as coming after the erection of the sun dance lodge:—

The soldiers of the tribe then had a frolic in and about it, running and jumping, striking and kicking, throwing one another down, stripping and tearing the clothes off each other.[10]

Martinez knew of no instance of a man voluntarily leaving his society. A father might give presents to poor Indians in honor of a boy who becomes a Rabbit, but he would not take the initiative to get his son into his own organization.

The mutual-benefit feature that characterizes the Crow clubs does not seem to have been prominent among the Kiowa. For example, when a man bought the medicine privileges described by Methvin under the caption "quo-dle-quoit,"[11] he was assisted by his relatives, but his society had nothing to do with the procedure.

At the time of the sun dance the medicineman appointed one of the societies to get the sacred tree. Similarly, he would choose one of them to act as police during the buffalo hunt. Their function in this connection is called q'i´at'a´tu, which seems to mean "they can stop any one." The offender who hunted individually instead of taking his place with the rest lost the meat so secured, and if he resented this punishment the police might shoot his horse or whip him.

If a member absented himself from an evening session of his society during the sun dance period, his associates would sing a song the next day, hallooing and making a big noise at the end of the song. Then one man would call aloud the delinquent's name, coupling it with that of his mother-in-law and crying, "That is your wife!" Since the mother-in-law taboo held sway among the Kiowa,[12] the object of the performance was evidently to make the offender ashamed.