412 THE MOUNTAIN CHANT. 
A third and a fourth time she made her proposal, and then she said: 
“Why do you not at least answer me? I have said that I will let my 
grandson take your messages to one of these camps and you langh at 
me and thank me not. Why is this?” Hearing her words, the chief 
medicine man, who came from a distant camp and did not know her, 
asked the men who were present who the woman was and what sort of 
a young man her grandson was; but again the men langhed and did 
not answer him either. He turned tothe old woman and said: “ Bring 
hither your grandson, that I may see him.” The woman answered: “It 
is already late; the night is falling and the way is long. It is of no use 
for you to see him to-night; let us wait untilthe morning.” “ Very well,” 
said the shaman; ‘bring him at dawn to-morrow.” She left the lodge 
promising to do as she was bidden; and the moment she was gone the 
long suppressed merriment of the men broke forth. They all laughed 
inordinately, made many jokes about the lazy grandson, and told the 
medicine man that there was no use in sending such a person with the 
message when the best runners among them did not dare to undertake 
the journey. ‘ Heis too weak and lazy to hunt,” said they; ‘he lives 
on seeds and never tastes flesh.” . 
63. As soon as there was light enough in the morning to discern ob- 
jects, a man who was looking out of the door of the medicine lodge cried 
out, ‘He comes,” and those inside laughed and waited. Presently Tla- 
¢es¢ini (such was the name of the old woman’s grandson) entered and 
sat down near the fire. Alllooked at him in astonishment. When last 
they saw him his hair was short and matted, as if it had not been 
combed or washed for three years, and his form was lean and bent. Now 
he appeared with thick glossy locks that fell below his knee; his limbs 
were large and firm looking; he held his head erect and walked like a 
youth of courage; and many said to one another, “This cannot be the 
same man.” In a little while another young man named Indsiskai 
(Radiating White Streaks), as fair and robust as the first, entered and sat 
down by the fire on the side opposite to where Tla¢es¢ini sat. The white 
earth and the charcoal for painting the akaninili were already pre- 
pared; so some of the young men in the lodge, when they beheld this 
pair of fine couriers, arose without a word of debate and began to paint 
the latter and to adorn their persons for the journey. When the toilet 
was done, the medicine man sent the couriers forth with many messages 
and injunctions and told them to blow on their whistles four times be- 
fore they got out of hearing of the lodge. Tlad¢esgini went to the north 
and Indsiskai to the south, and they walked so slowly that all the spee- 
tators again laughed and made merry, and many said: ‘They will 
never reach the camps whither we have sent them.” They passed out 
of sight just before the sun rose. Those whoremained in camp prepared 
to amuse themselves. They cleared the ground for the game of na%joj, 
and brought out their sticks and hoops. Some said: “ We will have 
plenty of time for play before the couriers return.” Others said: “At 


