THE MEDICINE-CHILD AND THE BEAVER MEDICINE. 247 
into the water, and when he lifted up his mouth commenced to work his 
jaws; then he leaped, turned a somersault, and vomited up a different bone 
from any that the others had vomited. These four kept going around 
the bowl of water, each dipping his nose and working his jaws, turning 
somersaults, and throwing up different bones of the baby that was in the 
boy. At last they worked and worked, but in vain. They could not do 
anymore. Finally they went over to the Bears and asked them for help. 
The Bears were willing to help. They went up to the young man, 
and the youngest of the Bears took his smallest claw, stuck it into the 
boy’s belly, and cut it open, taking the meat out and throwing it to the 
little animals. The Bears and all the medicine-men rose up and all the 
other animals rose and made a great rush to the boy and each animal 
worked his power. The Bears picked him up and carried him around. 
Finally they healed the wound. Then they stood the boy up and 
pushed him around until he finally walked; then they seated him on the 
south side. The boy looked at himself and wondered if he was himself. 
The animals then told the boy that they were through with him; that he 
should go above their lodge and subsist on whatever he could in the 
daytime, but at night he must always return and they would have their 
mysterious performances, which they intended to teach him. 
The boy was taken out of the lodge and placed on dry land. He 
went through the timber, found artichokes, dug them up, and ate them. 
He went on, found plums, andatethem. He went to the place where the 
people had their village and earth-lodges, and there he found a knife and 
some other material, such as sinew. Then he went to the timber and cut 
an ash tree and made a bow; then he cut some dogwood and made blunt 
arrows, so that he had a bow and arrows. He went through the timber, 
killed game, such as rabbits and birds, and ate them. In the night 
time he would return to the lodge of the animals: The animals would 
take him, and each animal would play sleight-of-hand upon his body, 
at the same time teaching him. They kept him there for a long 
time. When fall came they told him that the tribes had returned, and 
that they were living in their own village. They called him one night 
and told him to go to his village and enter it in the night, and then to go 
to his lodge; and that there he would find his father and mother, who 
believed that he was dead; that he should wake them and tell them 
that he wanted two parfleches filled with dried meat, and a number of 
robes and much tobacco. 
The boy went out of the animals’ lodge and went towards the village, 
and he found that the people had returned to their village. He went 
through the village to his own lodge andentered. He went to the bed of 
