154 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and listened to the song. It was a most wonderful song and floated 

 through the air to them. At a distance away the animals came and 

 drank but so entranced were they by the music that they killed 

 none. Through the entire night they sat listening to the song, and 

 listening they learned sections of the song. In the morning they 

 returned to the camp and reported what they had heard to their 

 chief. Then said the chief. " That song is for the good of the 

 medicine. You must find the source of the song and discover the 

 medicine that will make us powerful in war and cure all our ills. 

 You must purge yourselves and go again on the morrow." So the 

 young men did as directed and went again to the spring and threw 

 tobacco upon its surface. As night came on they listened and again 

 heard the great song and it was louder and more distinct than 

 before. Then they heard a voice singing from the air and telling 

 them a story of their lives and they marveled greatly. The song 

 grew louder and as they listened they discovered that it emanated 

 from the summit of a mountain. So they returned in the morning 

 and reported to their chief and sang to him parts of the song. Then 

 he said, " You must cleanse yourselves again and this time do not 

 return until you have the medicine, the song and the mystery." 

 So the young men cleansed themselves again and went to the spring 

 and as the thick night came on they heard the singing voices clear 

 and loud ringing from the mountain top. Then said one of the 

 young men, " Let us follow the sound to its source," and they 

 started in the darkness. After a time they stumbled upon a wind- 

 fall, a place where the trees had been blown down in a tangled 

 mass. It was a difficult place to pass in the darkness for they were 

 often entrapped in the branches but they persevered and it seemed 

 that someone was leading them. Beings seemed to be all about 

 them yet they could not see them for it was dark. After they had 

 extricated themselves from the windfall they went into a morass 

 where their footsteps were guided by the unseen medicine animals. 

 Now the journey was a very tedious one and they could see nothing. 

 They approached a gulf and one said, " Let us go up and down the 

 gulf and try to cross it," and they did and crossed one gulf. Soon 

 they came to another where they heard the roaring of a cataract 

 and the rushing of waters. It was a terrifying place and one of the 

 young men was almost afraid. They descended the slope and came 

 to a swift river and its waters were very cold but they plunged in 

 and would have been lost if someone unseen had not guided them. 

 So they crossed over and on the other side was a steep mountain 

 which they must ascend but could not because it was too steep. 



