MICHELSON. ] THE SINGING AROUND RITE, 561 
Then he began to use the fasting instrument. Then he began to 
fast very much indeed. Sometimes he (fasted) for three days. When 
he had not eaten for three days, his grandfather cooked corn for him, 
sometimes a little corn meal, and then later meat would be cooked 
for him. At last he went through four days without eating. All 
winter long he kept on fasting in this manner. It was exactly spring 
when he used up the (fasting instrument). When he painted himself 
for the last time then he was told by his grandfather, ‘‘ Now you will 
not eat again for four days.’”’ After he had not eaten for three days 
at night his grandfather brought some mud (?) for him. ‘‘ Now I 
am going to paint you,” he was told. Lo, he was painted all over his 
body with mud. ‘‘ Now go to sleep,” he was told. 
Later on he was able to sleep. Now this is what he was told by 
(some) one as he thus slept, ‘‘Now my grandchild, you may eat. I 
bless you. This is what is going to happen to you. As you have 
to-day made your body very hungry, you will truly never be in want 
of what are called game animals. You will have power to obtain 
them. Thatis howl am. For I am called a game animal, any kind 
of a game animal. I shall not fail to know when you desire me. 
When one of us is killed, he is not killed definitely. Whenever he 
has been killed, he lives again, but it is merely because we are unwilling 
for any one to make a killing without thought. We dislike some more 
than (others) to make a killmg. These are they who are not able to 
get them, they who are forbidden by any (of the game animals) to 
slay them. It has been arranged (for us) to be merely (game ani- 
mals). “But this is what is permitted: If you bless any one you must 
throw away your life for him. For that is merely what I permit you, 
that they always eat you,’ we were told by the one who made every- 
thing,” he was told. 
The next day he was cooked corn meal by his grandfather. After 
he had eaten he began to relate to him what he had dreamed. ‘‘ Now 
my grandchild,” he was told, ‘‘you have gotten one good thing for 
yourself. And he who blessed you does not desire anything from you. 
He is surely one employed by the manitou,”’ he was told. ‘‘ That is 
one thing mortals desire, namely, to easily kill game animals. Some- 
times there isnothing. Then, verily, mortals have a hard time with 
hunger. Now (the game animals) will not fail to know what they 
desire of them when hunting.® 
Now it seems he was eight years old when he was thus blessed. 
Surely from that time on whenever he went hunting he always 
brought back game. He was much loved by his parents as they did 
5 The second half of this paragraph is beset with difficulties, owing to a number of morphological and 
syntactical anomalies. The translation given above does not claim to be close; it is hardly more than a 
paraphrase. 
6 The syntax of this sentence is peculiar. The translation, however, is close to the Indian original in 
meaning. 
