March, 1905. The Cheyenne — Dorsey. 37 



white persons of to-day are the same as the bearded people who 

 were then there, but when the Great Spirit sent winters it divided 

 them from the white persons. But the floods that came on after 

 the winters set in divided the Indian or red people. This is the 

 reason the Cheyenne give as the cause of the existence of different 

 tribes speaking different languages. 



15.— THE ORIGIN OF THE CHEYENNE. 



Many thousands of years ago the Cheyenne inhabited a country 

 in the far north, across a great body of water. For two or three 

 years they had been overpowered by an enemy that outnumbered 

 them, and they were about to become the enemy's slaves, and they 

 were filled with sorrow. Among their number was a great medicine- 

 man who possessed a wooden hoop, like those used in the games of 

 to-day. On one side of the hoop were tied magpie feathers, while 

 opposite them, on the other side of the hoop, was a flint spear head, 

 with the point projecting toward the center of the hoop. One 

 night the great chief told the people to come to a certain place. 

 When they were assembled he led them away. He kept in advance 

 of them all the time, and- in his left hand he held a long staff, 

 and in his right hand he held his hoop horizontally in front of 

 him, with the spear head of the hoop pointing forward. No one 

 was allowed to go in front of him. On the fourth night of their 

 journey they saw, at some distance from the ground, and apparently 

 not far in front of them, a bright light. As they advanced the light 

 receded, and appeared always a little farther beyond. They trav- 

 eled a few more nights, and the fire preceded them all the way, until 

 they came to a large body of water. The medicine-man ordered 

 the Cheyenne to form in a line along the edge of the water, and they 

 obeyed. He then told them that he was going to take them across 

 the water to another land, where they would live forever. As they 

 stood facing the water the medicine-man asked them to sing four 

 times with him, and he told them that as they sang the fourth time he 

 would lead them across the water. As he sang the fourth time he 

 began to walk forwards and backwards, and the fourth time he 

 walked directly into the water. All the people followed him. He 

 commanded them not to look upward, but ever downward. As 

 they went forward the waters separated, and they walked on dry 

 ground, but the water was all around them. Finally, as they were 

 being led by night the fire disappeared, but they continued to fol- 

 low the medicine-man until daylight, when they found themselves 

 walking in a beautiful country. 



