58 TRUE STORIES OF THE HEAVENLY BEINGS. 
was about to kill them, when they hid by a rock that was close by the 
bear. While the bear was looking around for them, it had become cloudy, 
and as the clouds came over the place where they were, the lightning 
struck the bear and killed it. The boys arose, went to the bear and 
Star-Boy blew his breath into the mouth of the bear, and the bear’s 
skin rolled off. The boy tied the nose and blew up the bear skin and 
then they led it to the old woman. They ran towards their tipi yelling 
and crying. The old woman came out, saw the bear and commenced to 
run. Then the boys laughed and said, ‘“‘Grandmother, we have brought 
this bear to watch over your pumpkins; we shall stand it in the field, so 
that the wild animals will not come there.”’ 
In afew days the old woman told the boys that they must not go toa 
thickly timbered country; that there a monster lived. The boys went. 
When they came to the place they saw dust come out from a hole, but. 
they kept on. The father of Star-Boy saw that he was in danger, and 
he sent the clouds, so that it thundered, and the lightning struck the big 
monster, as it came out from its hole, and killed it. The boys dragged 
the monster to their tipi. They scared the old woman with it, then left 
the monster outside of the tipi. 
Again the boys were told by the grandmother not to go to a certain 
timbered country; that at the place were mountain-lions; but the boys 
went and killed the mountain-lions. The boys killed all the wicked 
animals in the country. The old woman, after gathering in her harvests, 
told the boys it was time to go back to their country, to tell the people 
that all the monsters and wild animals had been killed. They went 
back to their country, and the relatives of the boy took him to their home. 
Star-Boy told them that his mother had been taken up by Star, his 
father, who was one of the Star people in the sky. He was a great man 
among them. One time he disappeared. Nobody knew where he 
went; but they supposed that he went back to heaven. 
14. THE GRAIN-OF-CORN BUNDLE.’ 
A man was roaming over the prairie. He came to a place where 
people had camped and there he heard a woman crying. The man 
went to the place where the crying came from, but there was no one 
there, and he did not know what to think. When he went home he lay 
down and in the night he had a dream. He dreamed that he saw a 
woman. The woman spoke to him and said: ‘‘I stay where the crying 
Told by Pretty-Crow, a young Skidi medicine-man, who it is believed obtained 
the story from his present wife, the widow of an old Skidi by the name of Wonder- 
ful-Sun, who was both priest and medicine-man. ‘The tale relates to the origin 
of one of the bundles. It was told to emphasize the importance of economy in 
corn, and also to instill a reverential feeling toward corn. 
