HANDSOME-BOY AND AFTER-BIRTH BOY. 153 
people. The next thing the boys will do will be to try to kill me. I had 
better run away.’’ He had tried to run away when the boys started to 
go to the grass-lodge of the sharp-elbow people, but somehow the man 
found out that the power of the boy was watching him. He knew also 
that the boy knew that he was about to run away. Then the man came 
back to the lodge. 
One day the father went hunting. He stayed for several days. 
When he returned he had a deer upon his back. He went back into the 
timber and brought another deer. He brought several deer and buffalo. 
Then the man began to jerk the meat and cook it. After all the meat 
was cooked he took some skin bags, brought up water and placed it in 
the trough. At this time the boys were away in the timber, so that for 
several days they did not come to the lodge. The man thought to him- 
self, ‘‘This is a good time for me to go,’’ so he went away. The strange 
boy said: ‘‘Handsome-Boy, our father has run away. He is afraid of 
- us.”’ Handsome-Boy, however, would not believe this. They went 
back to their lodge. When they entered the lodge the strange boy said: 
‘‘Handsome-Boy, do you know how we got away from those sharp-elbow 
people?’’ Handsome-Boy said ‘“‘No.”” Then the strange boy said: 
*“When both of us stepped upon the rim of the kettle I said that we 
should turn into charred leaves, and as such we flew up and out of the 
opening. When the leaves were outside they came down upon the 
ground. When they struck the ground we were boys again. That is 
the manner in which we got away from the sharp-elbow people. Now 
let us find our father.’’ Handsome-Boy said: ‘‘No; our father will 
come back.” The strange boy said: ‘‘No; he is gone.” Then the 
strange boy said: ‘‘Handsome-Boy, let us go to my home.”’ 
They went home and when they arrived at the elm tree the two boys 
disappeared and there they were in a lodge under the ground. The 
lodge was really a wood rat’s nest. There Handsome-Boy found the 
bow and arrows and other things which the strange boy had taken away 
from hm. The strange boy said: ‘‘Handsome Boy, this is where I 
received my powers. The wood rats are my grandmothers. They fed 
me with pecans, grapes, plums, and ground beans. I was never hungry. 
Here where we sit dwelt all the animal gods. Among them was one 
strange being who seemed to have lightnings in his hands, lightnings in 
his eyes, and lightnings in his mouth.’ He said: ‘‘This Lightning man 
spoke to me and said that there were some human beings who pretended 
to be lightnings from the sky; that they had killed many people; that it 
was time that they were taken away from this earth and power would be 
given them to stand in the heavens as thunder and lightning.” 
