Head for Rattle
Mandan · mortal · Mandan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Head for Rattle, also remembered as No Hair on Him, is a named ancestral figure of the Mandan corn origin tradition recorded by Alfred Bowers. He was the youngest of the three brothers — with Good Furred Robe, the Corn Medicine and chief, and Cornhusk Earrings — who led the Corn People up from their home beneath the earth bringing the corn with them, and his name was given him 'after the gourds', his hairless head being likened to the gourd rattles used in the corn rites. The three brothers stand at the head of the Mandan corn ceremonies, and the sacred corn bundle was said, as recently as 1948, to contain the skulls of Good Furred Robe and his brothers.
Domains
- corn and garden crops
Powers
- to share the corn medicine rites of the emergence with his brothers
Relations
- sibling: Good Furred RobeHe is named as the younger brother of Good Furred Robe, the chief who led the Corn People up from beneath the earth.Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. (secondary)
- sibling: Cornhusk EarringsCornhusk Earrings, the second of the three corn-bringing brothers of the emergence tradition, is his sibling.Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. (secondary)
Sources
- Head for Rattle, also called No Hair on Him, is the youngest of the three corn-bringing brothers of the Mandan emergence tradition, named for his gourd-like hairless head, whose skulls together with those of his brothers the Mandan corn bundle was said to contain.: Alfred W. Bowers, Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. (secondary); Elizabeth A. Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People, New York: Hill and Wang, 2014. (secondary)