244 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
stomach. As the days went by and several months passed, the young man 
felt larger, as if his stomach was growing. He knew then that the old 
Skidi man had done something to him. He told hisrelatives of his condi- 
tion. The time came for all the tribes to go hunting. The young man 
told his people that he was going off, that he was pregnant, and that he 
was no longer fit to be in the village; that he was going to leave the 
village entirely and go off and die in some unknown country, so that the 
people would never know that he was in this condition. 
He took some meat and went off and left the village, traveling south. 
The people left their village and went west on a buffalo hunt. The 
young man went south toward the Platte River. He then traveled 
toward the west, following the Platte River. He did not eat anything all 
this time, for he felt very much ashamed and he did not care to live. 
When he came to the hills, he went into places where he thought wild 
animals would find him and kill him, but none came. He finally went 
across the Platte River to some rocky hills. He was very weak, his 
stomach was prominent, and his limbs were thin and his face also. While 
he was upon this hill he heard peculiar noises in the distance. He fol- 
lowed the noises, and, as he reached the ridge of a high hill, he looked 
down on the other side and saw a tipi. The tipi was very large and 
looked new. He went down the hill to the tipi. As he approached the 
west side, somebody within said, ‘‘Do not come near our tipi.” But 
the boy went on. When he came close to the south side, somebody com- 
manded him to stop where he was or he would be killed; but he went on 
and was not killed. When he came to the entrance, he was again com- 
manded not to enter; but he lifted the door flap and the voice said, ‘‘ Do 
not come in, for we shall eat you upif you do.”’ But the boy went in. 
Everything in the tipi was quiet. The boy threw aside the robe that 
he had upon him and told the people in there that he was ready to be killed; 
that he was in great trouble and that he did not care to live. ‘‘Look 
upon me and you can see what my trouble is,” he said. On the west 
side sat little men, and other men were sitting in a circle around the tipi, 
and on the south side a peculiar-looking man sat who was dressed differ- 
ently from the others. He had white clay streaks upon his face, and 
over him were hanging black lariat ropes, decked with downy feathers, 
and a war club was tied to the ropes. These people said that they were 
sorry not to be able to do anything for him, for they did not have the 
power to grant what he wanted. ‘‘But,”’ they said, ‘‘we will leave it to 
the two errand men who are sitting by the entrance to decide whether 
the animals shall help you or not.” 
There was a Raccoon on the north, and a Muskrat on the south of 
