242 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
The people, on their hunts, met the other band of Skidi, who were 
living upon the Loup River, and they told them of the wonderful boy, 
who was yet amere child, but was healing people and curing them of their 
diseases. The Skidi men who were told about the boy went homeand 
told their band that the lower band had a medicine-child who was won- 
derful and who had power to cure. The most powerful medicine-man 
decided to visit the boy and see what powers he possessed, and to find out 
whether his power came from the animals or from the gods in the heavens. 
He told his wife that he wanted her to go with him to the lower vil- 
lages, and they went. At last they came to the three lower villages and 
the man asked where the medicine-boy lived. The people told him, 
and he and his wife went to the boy’s lodge and entered it. The boy 
was there. He arose, took a buffalo robe, opened it, and spread it out 
on the west side of the lodge. He then placed two pillows and asked 
the man and his wife to take their seats upon them. They took the seats 
offered them. Then the young man called upon his women relatives to 
boil some meat for the visiting medicine-man and his wife. The women 
prepared a meal and offered the food to the man and his wife and they 
ate, and when they had had plenty, they passed the wooden bowls to the 
women who had offered the meat to them. The man then reached for his 
tobacco pouch, which was a skunk skin, and from this bag he took out a 
little pipe, filled it up with sumach leaves and tobacco. He lit the pipe, 
passed it to the young man, and the young man took the pipe from the 
old man and smoked. The boy passed the pipe back to the old man, 
who smoked and emptied the ashes out of the pipe upon the rim of the 
fireplace. Then the old man spoke to the young man, saying: “‘My 
friend, I came here to make friends with you. I came to stop here with 
you for several days, and to talk with you about the mysteries of a medi- 
cine-man. I am a Skidi, and I have heard of your success in curing 
people, and I thought I would come and sit up at nights to talk with you.’’ 
The young man felt honored by this visit, for it seemed that his own peo- 
ple were jealous of his success in curing people. The old Skidi medi- 
cine-man spent one whole night and part of the next day in telling where 
and how he received his powers. When he had finished, he ate, and then 
said: ‘‘My friend, we will now leave you. We will go to our village. 
I shall think about you and I shall make you another visit. If you can 
make me a visit some time, come. I shall be very glad to have you 
visit me.”’ The old man and the old woman arose and went out of the 
lodge and returned to their village. 
After a time word was again sent to the young man that his Skidi 
medicine-man friend was coming, and his wife with him. The young man 
