36 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. IX. 



and the land was dry, but the red men never came together any 

 more, but went in small bands, just as they did in the beginning, 

 before the Great Medicine told them to unite. The last flood des- 

 troyed almost everything, and the red men were on the point of 

 starvation, so that they had to start back to their original home 

 in the north as they had done before. When they reached the north 

 country they found the land all barren. There were no trees, and 

 there was not a living animal there, and not a fish in the water. 

 When the red men looked upon their once beautiful home they 

 cried aloud and all the women and children wept. This happened 

 in the beginning, when the Great Medicine created us. 



After many hundreds of years, just before the winter season came, 

 the earth shook and the high hills sent forth fire and smoke. When 

 the winter season came, there came great floods. All of the red 

 men and women had to dress in furs and live in caves, for the 

 winter was long and cold. It destroyed all of the trees, but when 

 spring came there was a new growth. The red men suffered much, 

 and were almost famished when the Great Medicine took pity on 

 them and gave them corn to plant, and the buffalo for meat. From 

 that time there were no more floods and no more famines. The 

 people continued to live in the south. They grew and increased in 

 numbers, and there were many different bands with different lan- 

 guages, for the people were never united after the second flood. 



The descendants of the original Cheyenne who inhabited the 

 beautiful country in the far north before the winter seasons came 

 on in this country, and to each of whom the great Prophet came, 

 had men who were magicians. They had supernatural wisdom. 

 They charmed not only their own people, but also all animals that 

 they lived on or ate. It made no difference how fierce or wild 

 the animals were, if those men used that secret influence on them, 

 they became so tame that the people could go right up to them and 

 handle them. This magic knowledge was handed down from the 

 original Cheyenne, who came from the far north/ To-day Bushy- 

 Head is the only one who understands that ancient ceremony, and 

 the Cheyenne of to-day place him in rank equal to the medicine- 

 arrow Keeper and his assistants. 



The magicians of old understood the secret powers only, but 

 they could not bring forth live buffalo in big herds, and prophesy 

 like the original medicine-arrow Prophet, who was sent by the Great 

 Spirit to the Cheyenne, who still celebrate his arrows. It has 

 been confirmed by nearly all of the old Cheyenne, that about the 

 time that they were in that beautiful country in the far north the 



