46 TRUE STORIES OF THE HEAVENLY BEINGS. 
people now knew what they must do in this life, they jumped into their 
basket and went up into the heavens again. The Spider-Woman said 
that the doctor’s dance is the same and represents the moon, who gave 
knowledge to these people. She helped the Big-Black-Meteoric-Star to 
give the man power to cure the sick and to do mysteries. She sat in 
the southwest corner of the lodge and the people in the south called her 
sister, while the doctors in the north called her their wife. 
10. THE ORIGIN OF A NEW BAND.’ 
A long time ago some people, Skidi or Pitahauirat, lived in a village 
in the north. They had many ceremonies and offered buffalo meat to 
Tirawa. In this village were many boys who played about in the timber, 
along the creeks. In their plays they held medicine-men’s dances and 
imitated the medicine-men trying to do sleight-of-hand. Among these 
young men was one whose father was a medicine-man, and another 
whose father was a chief. The medicine-man kept the ceremony of 
the medicine-men, while the chief kept the sacred bundles, and also 
knew the songs and rituals that went with the bundles. 
In the village was a young man who was poor and he did not go to 
play with the other boys. The medicine-man’s boy and the chief’s boy 
liked the poor boy, and they often went to his tipi and asked him to play 
with them. The poor boy always refused, but one time the two boys 
begged him so hard that he went to the place where they were playing. 
All the boys in the play took their turn in doing wonderful things. The 
medicine-man’s boy took a willow stick and ran it down his throat. 
After they had all performed their tricks, the poor boy took the chief’s 
son and the medicine-man’s son aside, and said: ‘‘My brothers, you 
have been asking me to come and play with you. Ican not, for I am 
poor. You boys are learning wonderful things from your fathers. My 
father isa poorman. He has no ceremony nor has he any sacred bundle. 
I am a poor boy, but since I have come this time I will come again. I 
want you to promise me that you will try to learn all the rituals, songs, 
and mysteries of the medicine-men. Will you promise me?’”’ Both of 
the boys promised and they parted. After that the poor boy always 
played with them. 
One night the poor boy asked the two boys if they had learned all 
that was to be known of the sacred bundles and the mysteries of the 
1Told by Mouth-Waving-in-Water, a very old Kitkehahki medicine-man, one 
of the oldest of living Pawnee. While the tale apparently recounts a historical 
event, and is told as history, it especially is supposed to stimulate young men to 
greater deeds on the war-path, by encouraging them in the belief that possibly they 
also will become the founder of a new band. 
