THE HERMAPHRODITE. 139 
he could cure the young man was by having the relatives of the boy go to 
the creeks, springs, or any streams of water, and get the green moss from 
the bottom of the streams and bring it to him. The people went tothe 
streams of water, but there was not any moss to be found. The medicine- 
man said: ‘‘Spider-Woman knows that I can cure the young man if I 
can get this moss; she has caused all this moss to disappear, so 1 can not 
cure him.’’ When the boy heard that the medicine-men could not do 
anything for him, he was so ashamed that he committed suicide, rather 
than be half woman and half man. 
38. THE SCALPED MEN.’ 
A long time ago some men went from their village on the war-path. 
The leader of the war party carried the sacred bundle upon his back. 
He carried the sacred bundle upon his back all the time and never 
offered any smoke to the gods in the heavens. Some of the warriors 
complained; they thought that they should offer some smoke to the gods 
on the way. When they came near to a village the leader took the bun- 
dle and placed it before him. He called the warriors and told them to 
-be seated close to him. Instead of opening the bundle and offering smoke 
to the gods, he told the warriors that he had come to attack the village 
and to kill some of the enemy. When he said this all the other men 
agreed to attack the village. The leader got up, put the bundle upon 
his back, and led the warriors to the village. The scouts who had been 
out returned and reported that the village was a small one, but when 
the warriors attacked the village they found that instead of a few tipis 
there were many others in the valley. They were soon surrounded and 
all scalped but not killed. When the enemy left them upon the battle- 
field they all jumped up and gathered together. The leader was there 
with his bundle and they found that all of the warriors instead of being 
killed were only scalped. The leader then spoke to them and said: 
“There is not one of you who would want to go back to your people. 
Let us now go into a strange country and live there always.” They all 
agreed to live away among the hills and there make their homes. 
For many years the people looked for them to come home, but they 
never came. One day a man went hunting and as he climbed a high 
hill he heard people singing. He looked down in the valley where there 
1Told by Bright-Eyes, a Skidiwoman, who, at the time of her death recently, 
was the keeper of the Big-Black-Meteoric-Star bundle. The story is interesting 
on account of its expression of the belief, widespread among the Pawnee, that men 
scalped in warfare were not killed, but wandered off through thecountry, leading an 
independent existence, and as such were reckoned among the supernatural beings. 
Their home was supposed to be in the south, and occasionally, as noted in this and 
other tales, they conferred their magic power on some favored individual. 
