Feb. 26, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
331 
The Cheyennes say that this man must have 
been crazy. When they charged toward him he 
jumped off the mule and ran down the creek. 
He came to a coyote hole and spread his buf¬ 
falo robe over the hole and pulled his moccasins 
off and placed them on the ground in such a way 
that it looked as if he were lying down there. 
At first the Cheyennes thought he was lying in 
the hole, and when they charged him the first 
man struck the robe with his bow and then saw 
that there was no Pawnee there. They ran fur¬ 
ther down the creek, searching everywhere, and 
at length found him hiding in the bed of the 
stream. When he saw that he was discovered, 
he jumped up, holding his bow and a handful 
of arrows. He pointed to the sun and made 
signs that he was like the sun and that it would 
be a great thing for them if they should kill 
him that day. The Cheyennes say that whether 
he was crazy or not he made a good fight. Twice 
he came very near catching Thin Face, and they 
say that if he had been on a horse he would 
have killed a number of them. Thin Face fought 
on foot and the Pawnee kept running after him. 
Big Nose had a gun and got off his horse to 
shoot at him, and when the Pawnee saw that 
Big Nose was off his horse he made a dash for 
him. Big Nose got behind his horse to shoot, 
but the Pawnee did not turn back but kept rush¬ 
ing toward him, and when he got very close, Big 
Nose shot him and he fell. For a long time the 
Cheyennes were afraid to go close to him. Once 
before he had lain on the ground and pretended 
that he was shot, and when they went near to 
him he had jumped up and run after them. 
They thought he was playing this trick again. 
After loading his gun, Big Nose walked up to 
the Pawnee and he was dead. They say he 
was a fine looking young man. 
This time the Cheyennes got six scalps and 
got back all their horses except two that the 
Pawnees had ridden off. For the rest of the 
winter the Cheyennes held big scalp dances. 
Later in the winter Bear Man, although it 
was winter, made fresh cherries and plums to 
grow while he was doctoring Sand Hill. Sand 
Hill was very sick—so low that he could not* 
eat anything, and Bear Man made this fruit for 
him to eat. Bear Man took twigs of cherry and 
plum brush and stuck them in the ground and 
threw a buffalo robe over them and shook his 
rattle and prayed over it a few times, and when 
he took the robe off there were wild cherries 
and plums on these bushes. The medicine men 
were sitting inside the lodge and saw Bear Man 
do this. 
The Strange Adventures of a Kiowa 
War Party. 
A long time ago a war party of Kiowas and 
Comanches started to go to Mexico to see what 
they could do. After they had gone some dis¬ 
tance the back of one of their horses became 
very sore; it was so bad that the horse could 
no longer be ridden. When they saw how sore 
the pony’s back was, they thought it best to 
leave it behind, for it would be no use to them 
on the rest of the trip, and when they came back 
they could find it and take it home with them. 
While they were talking about this a middle 
aged man said: “It will be good to take the 
insides of the wild gourds that grow here on 
the prairie and plaster them on this sore. This 
will keep the flies off, and at the same time will 
help to heal the wound.” Some of the young 
men hobbled the pony, and getting some of the 
gourds they broke them open and took out the 
seeds and the pulp and spread this over the sore 
until it was all covered. Then they left the 
horse and went on their way. 
There was a young man who went along as 
a servant who rode a small black pony, whose 
ears and tail had been cut off. It was a thick 
short-legged animal and, when at a little dis¬ 
tance, looked a good deal like a black bear. The 
party traveled on, and when they reached the 
mountains they came to a place where bears 
CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN. 
were very plenty and very tame, so that any¬ 
one could ride right close to them and they 
would pay no attention to the men. Game of all 
kinds was plenty and the war party had an 
abundance of food. They did not trouble the 
bears because it is against the Kiowa medicine 
to hurt a bear, for the great medicine of the 
Kiowas—that which they used in their medicine 
lodge, and to which they offered presents to 
bring them good luck—are stones that look just 
like bear kidneys and they call them stone bear 
kidneys. 
The night they camped here someone gave the 
alarm that enemies were coming, and all were 
frightened. The young men that were guard¬ 
ing the horses ran them into camp, and every¬ 
body was in a great hurry to saddle up and move 
to another place. The night was very'dark. The 
young man who had the black bobtailed pony 
saddled it and at length the whole party moved 
off together. During the night, while they were 
traveling, if any man rode near to this young 
servant who had the small bobtailed horse, the 
rider’s horse would shy away from the young 
man. To some of the men this happened more 
than once, and they thought it was queer and 
did not understand it, but when daylight was 
coming on they saw the reason why their horses 
shied away from this young man on his black 
bobtailed pony. When the horses had been 
driven into the camp a black bear had come 
with them, and this young man had saddled up 
the black bear in the darkness, taking the bear 
for his horse. 
When the Kiowas saw what had happened 
they all laughed a great deal and asked the 
young man why it was that he had not found 
out that he was riding a bear. The young man 
said: “I was so sleepy that I did not know 
what I was doing; so I rode the bear.” 
The bobtail pony was running with a loose 
herd of horses, so the young man got off the 
bear and took off his saddle and bridle and the 
others caught his pony and brought it to him 
and they left the bear behind them. 
The war party went on to Mexico, raided the 
settlement there, took some Mexican captives 
and got many horses. On the way back they 
came to a very large and deep stream. They 
sent the Mexican captives to ride into it in the 
lead, and drove the loose horses after them, so 
that the herds followed them. When the horses 
reached the middle of the stream they began 
to plunge for the other side as fast as they could 
swim, but one gray mare hung back and was 
slow in making for the shore and in climbing 
the bank. The other horses had all got out on 
the bank, and some began to feed and some to 
roll in the grass when they saw this mare com¬ 
ing up on to the bank, and all of them stam¬ 
peded, running away from her. She had some¬ 
thing hanging to her tail, but when she got up 
on to the level ground she began to kick and 
plunge and the thing dropped off. 
When the Kiowas rode up to it, it was an old 
man. It had a tail like a fish, no legs and was 
very wrinkled all over. It had eyes and mouth 
and ears, but no nose. The head was perfect 
except for the nose. The eyes were large and 
round; they were like fishes eyes. It had very 
long finger nails like the claws of the snapping 
turtle. It could not sit upright on account of 
its fishes’ tail. The Kiowas all ran from this 
little old man. 
Aftfer a time they got back to the place where 
they had left the sore-backed horse. When they 
had almost reached the place the owner of the 
horse went ahead to search for it. He climbed 
up on a hill to look around to see if he could 
see the horse down the stream, and when he 
looked down the valley he saw a small green 
mound, and while he looked at it, it moved. He 
motioned to his party to come on quick and they 
did so, and joined him, and at last they all rode 
up to the mound and found that it was the sore- 
backed horse that they had left. Long vines 
had grown from the seed put upon his sore and 
hung down to the ground all about, covering the 
horse. 
The Kiowas held a council to determine 
whether they should take this horse with them 
or leave him, and after it had all been talked 
over they thought it best to leave him where 
he was. They say that now there is a big mound 
there covered with these gourds and they call 
it the Horse Mound. At this place big herds of 
