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



In a collection of Crow traditions 1 I have already published two 

 myths told by Medicine-crow, which connect the Tobacco with the 

 story of the creation. Old-Man-Coyote, whom my informant alter- 

 nately identified with and distinguished from the Sun, after causing 

 birds to bring up mud from the bottom of the sea, fashions the earth from 

 it, and then discovers a number of independent beings, of which the 

 Tobacco is one. 2 In the longer variant the Sun gives some general 

 instructions as to the planting of Tobacco, then the narrative merges 

 into the following account of how the Tobacco dance was started. 



A poor boy went out fasting and the Sun came and adopted him, ordering him 

 to get an elk bladder on his return, tie it to a pole, and place it at the back of his tipi. 

 The boy said, " If I carry this around with us, it will perpetuate our living." He took 

 a Tobacco seed case, placed it in the bladder and hung it round his neck, using this on 

 war expeditions. There were no horses then, dogs were used for packing. There 

 were no matches, no guns, and they made fire by drilling wood. When the boy grew 

 older he became a chief and was like a father to the Crow. He said at last, " I am get- 

 ting old, I'll plant this medicine of the Stars for you." He called all the men and 

 women. "The mountain likes this medicine. " He cleared the ground, sang with his 

 medicine, and planted it. They moved camp and roamed about. After the planting 

 the dance started. Buffalo tongues were used at the luncheon at the dance. " When 

 the berries are ripe, we'll see what we have planted." They came back to the garden. 

 "When the leaves turn yellow in the fall, we'll gather it and each one will keep some 

 of it." 



When they were journeying, he said, " Four days after breaking camp some of 

 you must come back and see this. Then we'll take our first look at it." On their 

 return he said, "My children, how is it getting along?" The inspectors replied, "It 

 is just peeping out of the ground." He had big cottonwood lodge poles cut and had 

 made a big tipi. " We'll have lots of eatables and sing there." They put up the lodge. 

 First they went to a preparatory tipi. "We'll use four stops before entering the 

 lodge." He gave them a special song for the first stop ; it has no words, but represents 

 the coming back of the wild geese in the spring. "All the birds coming back have a 

 leader. We'll have one too." So he gave his wife the pipe and she led the procession. 

 This established the precedent. They had four stops after coming out. After they 

 got into the lodge he stood up and said, "On any good day, when people are glad, they 

 always drink water." He ordered an old woman to make a soapstone bucket and 

 put it some distance outside the lodge. "On your way to the water and back, you 

 must think of some of your deeds, and you can tell us then of the killing in the evening. 

 Inside the altar there shall be four rows of charcoal; when young men come back 

 from the warpath, we'll use charcoal to paint up and dance with if they have killed 

 any enemies. Everything that grows shall turn whitish (fade). This ground-cedar 

 shall be the only thing to remain green, both winter and summer." Then he said 

 again, "What we plant shall be inspected again seven days after the first inspection. 

 If this grows, there will be nothing on the face of the earth similar to it, for Old-Man- 

 Coyote and the Stars gave it to me." The chief asked whether the plant would be 



iLowie, (c), 11, 15. 



2 The others were said to be Magpie, Coyote and the Medicine Rock. 



