178 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXI, 



At the time of the year when young birds become fledglings a little boy went out 

 to hunt birds nearly every day. One day he shot off all his arrows and could not find 

 any of them; he had only his bow left. As he sat resting in the shade, a young man 

 came up to him and asked, " What are you doing? " Do you know me?" " I do not 

 know you." " I am one of the stars above. I have two bodies, I'll give you one 

 (maxua rupem, havidtem bardk'blk' .) Will you know it if I give you one?" " I don't 

 know." " You will know. If I give you this, I don't want you to forget, and when 

 you get to a certain age I want you to do as I tell you. I'll visit you four times while 

 you grow up, and each time I'll speak to you about it. The fourth time you'll begin 

 to perform." On his second visit the star said to him, " Get buffalo chips and elk 

 chips, and the berries from a cactus plant and wild onions." The next time he asked, 

 " Have you got all I told you about?" "Yes." " Get a beaver hide skinned so that it 

 can be used for a sack; a rattle; and some ground-mole dirt (bdsare). I'll see you in 

 the spring and that will be my last visit." In the spring while roaming round on the 

 prairies the boy was visited again and was asked whether he had got everything as 

 ordered. " Yes, I have everything in the hide of a spring calf." " Now it is spring, 

 the grass is coming out, and I'll give you my second body. Camp in a place where 

 you see a row of trees pointing toward the mountains. Sit there and take a stick four 

 hands long, and make a little garden square of that si/.e facing the mountains. I'll 

 give you my second body now." He took from his neck four Tobacco plants and told 

 him, "Put these four into the ground." He had some manure and burned incense of 

 the ise plant. " Take buffalo chips and mix them with Tobacco seeds. You'll be the 

 leader of a war party' and get horses and everything else you wish for. When you'll 

 plant me, I'll be a young man every year." He sang a song and said, " Put mole dirt 

 and some onion into the beaver sack, then the beaver will make you dream, show you 

 what to do, and will give you a song." He sang one song, shaking his rattle. " Its 

 first name is 6pe, later it shall be called i'tsi'tsw. It is i'g'eri-dxe, the morningstar." 

 The plants have generally three crosses; nukaxpicd (open line) is another name for 

 the plant, referring to the crosses. " Come and visit me three times, and the fourth 

 time, when the cherries shall be ripe, you may take me. These (the cactus, berry, 

 onion, and beaver) are my servants. Each* in turn will show you different things. 

 At the time of the harvest I myself shall make you see the future and teach you some 

 songs. Some time I'll make you dream of adopting others. When that time comes 

 you may adopt and have ' children.' All of my stars own this second body of mine. 

 When I grow, I'll be one stem for each plant. At the end of each stem will be four 

 cherries." The man disappeared. When the time came, the visionary did not 

 know what to do with the stem. He took it home. Beaver appeared to him in a 

 dream and said, " I am his servant, throw the stem into the water. It needs the 

 water." So next morning he threw the stems into the water. The next night Beaver 

 again came and said, " Let us adopt children, look." Then the visionary saw two 

 children, painted red. " Look further." Then he saw two others, with little beavers 

 in their lap. Beaver said, " That is I," referring to the little beaver. Then the man 

 went round the camp, found a very poor orphan boy, and offered to adopt him into 

 the Tobacco ceremony. The boy consented. He took him into his tipi, sang the songs 

 given to him, and thus adopted him. " You are my son now. My first payment shall 

 be meat. When some of the men go hunting, accompany them and bring some meat 

 to me. I am your parent now." The orphan went along on the next hunt, packed 

 meat and put it before his parent. " This is the first pay I have received. Now I'll 



