KADiN] THE MEDICINE DANCE 377 



Creator sits. The first thing that they did to me was this: They took 

 me to a lodge at night ; there they talked and sang. Then the second 

 night the tobacco bundles were made; then the great old medicine 

 men were given tobacco. After this came the four nights' prepara- 

 tion. Then came the great medicine dance. Then they went after 

 those that were going to join, one at a time. They, the medicine 

 men, were repeating what the Hare had done. When the Hare 

 came on earth he performed certain actions, and that is what 

 they were repeating now. Hare had visited the different spirits, 

 it is said, looking for a means of life, it is said. The old medicine 

 men possessed the good tidings that Hare had brought to this earth. 

 That is what the people desh-ed of Hare, it is said. 



Whien they entered, the first person to whom tobacco had been 

 given, i. e., the one first invited, entered first. Then the others 

 followed in turn. Then he talked; then the one who initiated me 

 expressed his thanks, saying, "You medicine men, this affair the 

 Hare has given you, you are repeating in order to bless us. For that 

 reason j'ou have come. We ask you to give to this person whom we 

 are about to uiitiate the life you have obtained for us. We ask that 

 the newly initiated o&e travel along that road." 



Then the first person spoke, and after that they all ate. When he 

 was through they heated a stone. After that they all entered in 

 regular order and I was asked to go in with them. Thus I entered 

 the sweat-bath lodge. When I was inside they told me that the stone 

 which they had heated was a spirit. "The life that he brought I 

 should ask for," they told me. After that we went out again. 



At night we entered again. Tlien at about 2 o'clock they took 

 me out to the brush. Not until then was I to learn what the medicine 

 men really did. When we got to the brush they made me sit down 

 and the man who was initiating me turned me over to the others. 

 He said, "I turn him over to you. Whatever the elders have taught 

 you, that we desire you to tell him." When he finished the first 

 one began to talk, saying, "It is good that you are such a person. 

 Earthmaker must have willed it so. In the olden times if a person 

 wanted to join the medicine lodge he could not do it until he was 

 quite old." Then he continued preaching to me. Wlien Earth- 

 maker first came into the world and what happened after that, how 

 he created all things: that he told me. He told me that Earthmaker 

 created four worlds, in each of which he placed men and women; 

 that the heavens we see represent the last man he created and the 

 earth we are living on the last woman he created. Then he told 

 how Herecgunina was created. The story is as follows: Earth- 

 maker created man, whom he wished to put at the head of the world, 

 but he did not make one of his legs quite right. Then he threw him 

 down to the earth because when Earthmaker made anything wrong 

 186823—22 25 



