THE CODE OF HANDSOME LAKE . 25 



have recovered. Now moreover before noon many people will 

 gather at the council house. These people will be your relatives 

 and will see you. They will have gathered the early strawberries^ 

 and made a strawberry feast, and moreover will have strawberry 

 wine sweetened with sugar. Then will all drink the juice of the 

 berry and thank the Creator for your recovery and moreover they 

 severally will call upon you by your name as a relative according 

 as you are.' 



" Now when the day came I went as appointed and all the people 

 saw me coming and it was as predicted." 



THE MESSAGE OF THE FOUR BEINGS 



" Now the messengers spoke to me and said that they would now 

 tell me how things ought to be upon the earth. They said : ' Do 

 not allow any one to say that you have had great fortune in being 

 able to rise again. The favor of the four beings is not alone for 

 you and the Creator is willing to help all mankind.' 



" Now on that same day the Great Feather^ and the Harvest 

 dances were to be celebrated and at this time the beings told me 

 that my relatives would restore me. ' Your feelings and spirits 

 are low,' they said, ' and must be aroused. Then will you 

 obtain power to recover.' A'erily the servants of the Creator 

 (Hadio"ya"geono°) said this. Now moreover they commanded 

 that henceforth dances of this same kind should be held and thanks- 

 giving offered whenever the strawberries were ripe. Furthermore 

 they said that the juice of the berry must be drunk by the children 

 and the aged and all the people. Truly all must drink of the berry 

 juice, for they said that the sweet water of the berries was a 

 medicine and that the early strawberries were a great medicine. 

 So they bade me tell this story to my people when I move upon the 

 earth again. Now they said, ' We shall continually reveal things 

 unto you. We, the servants of him who made us, say that as he 

 employed us to core unto you to reveal his will, so you must carry 

 it to your people. Now we are they whom he created when he made 

 the world and our duty is to watch over and care for mankind. 

 Now there are four of us but the fourth is not here present. When 

 we called you by name and you heard, he returned to tell the news. 



1 The earliest of the wild strawberries are thought to be of great medicinal 

 value and are eagerly eaten as soon as ripe. So sacred a plant is the 

 strawberry that it is thought to grow along the " heaven road." A person 

 recovering from a severe illness says, " I almost ate strawberries." 



2 The Osto'wa'go'wa, the chief religious dance. See Morgan, p. 279. 



