SWANTON] RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN GENERAL 251 
who might be with them would go to the nest and knock it down with a stick, 
and the little people would then think that he could perform miracles. 
Whenever they took a man away in order to instruct him, they would first 
test him to see whether he would divulge anything. If they found that he 
was easily excited and would let things slip out, they would not teach him 
anything, but if they discovered that he was strong minded they would teach 
him because that was the kind of man they wanted. One way they had of 
testing a man was to leave him all alone in the evening when they camped and 
then send some one back to attempt to scare him. If he withstood all such 
tests he was selected as one who could be trusted. 
If a person had been made a doctor by the little people, the fact was betrayed 
by his actions, but if one who had been with them told anything about them 
he would become of little use to himself or anybody else, because the power 
that they had given him would be taken away. 
When a person got lost and these little people found him, they usually led 
him along to a place which was familiar to him. When they took a child away 
and instructed him, the child would not begin to follow their instructions until 
he had grown up. 
Some doctors like to talk about the little people and describe their doings, 
but those are not good doctors. When a doctor was not careful about what he 
had been taught, talked of what he could do, and tried to do it, he was some- 
times looked upon as a wizard and sometimes they wanted to kill him. Witch 
doctors owe their origin to the little people, and at times many innocent people 
suffer because of them. They are in the habit of lying in order to increase 
their pay while real doctors generally tell what is true. 
A third being of the forest was called tiboli. It was about the size 
of a man and had an arm shaped like a club, with which it pounded 
on trees. ‘These creatures did so only in winter, and my informant 
claimed to have heard the noise made by them very often. 
A horned snake called sint-holo (“sacred snake”) lived along big 
creeks or in caves. Not all persons could see these snakes, but some- 
times a boy would get near one of them or even see him, and when 
this happened people said the snake would cause him to be wiser 
than other people. These snakes often moved from one stream to 
another, and it was claimed that they would make it rain in order to 
raise the rivers so that they could leave their hiding places with more 
facility. Such snakes harmed neither people nor cattle. The sint- 
holo is said to have made a noise like thunder. Once a hunter dis- 
covered a sint-holo fighting with the Thunder. Each of the con- 
testants begged for help, and finally he decided in favor of the 
Thunder and shot the snake. The Thunder told him to run as soon 
as he had done this, and as he did so he heard thunder behind him and 
saw lightning flashing about. He climbed a hill, when water from 
the creek rushed after him and nearly caught him, but he escaped. 
My informants knew nothing about the thunder-bird, nor any story 
bearing on the rainbow. The galaxy was called ofi’ to‘bi ihina, 
“the white dog’s road,” but no story about it was remembered. 
