different societies,
_Is'-sui_, Tails, but they dress alike
and dance together
and alike.

_[)E]ts-[=a]i'-nah_, Horns, Bloods, obsolete among the
Piegans,
_Sin'-o-pah_, Kit-foxes, Piegans, but still exists
with Bloods.

_[)E]-[)i]n'-a-ke_, Catchers or Soldiers, obsolete for 25-30 years,
perhaps longer.

_St[)u]'m[=i]ks_, Bulls, obsolete for 50 years.

There may be other societies of the All Comrades, but these are the only
ones that I know of at present. The M[=u]t'-s[)i]ks, Braves, and the
Knats-o-mi'-ta, All Crazy Dogs, still exist, but many of the others are
being forgotten. Since the necessity for their existence has passed, they
are no longer kept up. They were a part of the old wild life, and when the
buffalo disappeared, and the Blackfeet came to live about an agency, and to
try to work for a subsistence, the societies soon lost their importance.
The societies known as Little Birds, Mosquitoes, and Doves are not really
bands of the All Comrades, but are societies among the boys and young men
in imitation of the _I-kun-uh'-kah-tsi_, but of comparatively recent
origin. Men not more than fifty years old can remember when these societies
came into existence. Of all the societies of the _I-kun-uh'-kah-tsi,_ the
Sin'-o-pah, or Kit-fox band, has the strongest medicine. This corresponds
to the Horns society among the Bloods. They are the same band with
different names. They have certain peculiar secret and sacred ceremonies,
not to be described here.

The society of the Stum'-[=i]ks, or Bulls, became obsolete more than fifty
years ago. Their dress was very fine,--bulls' heads and robes.

The members of the younger society purchased individually, from the next
older one, its rights and privileges, paying horses for them. For example,
each member of the Mosquitoes would purchase from some member of the Braves
his right of membership in the latter society. The man who has sold his
rights is then a member of no society, and if he wishes to belong to one,
must buy into the one next higher. Each of these societies kept some old
men as members, and these old men acted as messeng