Thomas E Mails. Dog Solidiers, Bear Men and Buffalo Women: A Study of the Societies and Cults of the Plains Indians. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1973, 384 pages, $20.00.

One can only marvel at a work such as this: nearly 400 oversize pages which include more than 150, illustrations by the author—In penand-ink, charcoal, and bold color—of Plains Indian physiognomy, regalia, and ceremony. The accompanying text highlights secular and ritual aspects of those Indians' associational life organized around an array of warrior societies, civil societies, and cult groups—both male and female. Various dance rituals are examined in Dog Soldiers, Bear Men and Buffalo Women, including the Hot Dance of the Arikara (p. 149), the Hidatsa (p. 170), and the Crow (p. 300); the Bear Song Dance and the Sacred Pipe Dance of the Crow (p. 300); and the Horse Dance performed by the Assiniboine (pp. 343-344). A labor of love indeed by Thomas E. Mails, a Lutheran minister who has managed to evoke much.of that life in great literary and artistic detail.