March,, 1905. The Traditions of the Hopi — Voth. 225 



children. They at once noticed him, saying: "Somebody is looking 

 in here," and invited him to come down. "How can I come in?" 

 he said. "What is the matter with you?" they asked, to which he 

 replied: "My thigh bone is broken." So one of the small men went 

 up the ladder and carried the lame man down, placing him on the 

 floor north of the fireplace. Two rabbits, which the man had killed 

 and brought with him from the hunt, he left outside. The people 

 pitied the poor man and said: "So this has happened to you." 

 "Yes," he answered, "could not one of you hunt me up a doctor?" 

 Whereupon one of the small men whispered to another one: "Let's 

 repair the leg for him." "All right," he answered, who was a chief. 

 Hereupon a door was opened on the north side of the kiva which led 

 into another room, and all the small people, who seemed to be chil- 

 dren, were sent into that small room. One of the men, who took 

 care of the fire at the fireplace, remained with the sick man. The 

 one who remained, presently called out: "Now come in here," where- 

 upon a very great number of the Mice entered the room, crowded 

 around the patient, covering him completely, and commencing to 

 rub him all over the body and otherwise worked on and about him, 

 and in that way plied their art as doctors upon the patient that had 

 so unexpectedly dropped in upon them. All at once they all ran 

 away, entered another room again, and the man found that his leg 

 had been made well. He was very happy and leaving the two rabbits 

 as a remuneration, he went home to the village. The people knowing 

 that his leg had been broken the previous day, were surprised to see 

 him well and inquired who had cured him. He told them. 



The Badger, who lived north of the village, heard about it and 

 became very jealous and angry about the matter. The man whose 

 leg had been healed by the Mice said to the people, that the "Old 

 Man Badger" was somewhat behind. It had been those Mice who 

 had cured him and what was more, they had not asked for any pay, 

 whereas, the Old Man Badger always asked something for his ser- 

 vices, meat, cactus bulbs, etc., and he advised people who ever had 

 any ailments, to go to these Mice physicians that lived west of the 

 village, and had cured him. The Old Man Badger did a great 

 deal of thinking over the matter and was angry. Finally he con- 

 cluded that he was going to test the knowledge of the Mice doctors. 

 " I am going to feign sickness and shall call them over, and if they can 

 tell me my ailment, I shall believe in them. " So he feigned sickness; 

 placed some pelts and blankets on the floor and a bowl by his side, 

 and laid down. In order to make it appear that he was very 

 sick he took a little nourishment in the morning only and kept 



