254 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
age he gave his son his beaver that he used in his medicine ceremonies 
and told him to keep up the ceremony, for he himself was getting old. 
His son learned his ceremonies and the old man died. 
78. THE ORIGIN OF THE LOON MEDICINE CEREMONY.’ 
A long time ago when the Skidi were living on the Loup River, in 
Nebraska, there lived a poor boy. The boy had no relations and had to 
go from one lodge to the other for food. When he had grown to be a 
good-sized boy, the chief’s son, who had become very fond of him, asked 
him to come into his lodge and live with him. The chief’s boy gave the boy 
moccasins, leggings,and a robe, and a lariat rope made out of buffalo hide. 
He told the poor boy that he could look after their ponies, and that it 
would be his work to water them. The poor boy took care of the ponies 
so well that the chief’s boy’s relations were glad to have him stay 
with them, and they gave him many gifts and were always kind to him. 
In a few years the two boys grew to manhood. The chief’s son was so 
devoted to his companion, who had grown into a handsome man, that he 
made up his mind that he would keep him in his lodge, and that he should 
sleep with him in his own bed. 
In the tribe there was another chief who had a beautiful daughter, 
and the chief’s son courted the maiden. It was understood through the 
village that he would marry the girl, for she showed him every favor. 
If she happened to be in the fields working, and the young man came to 
the field, she threw down her hoe and went to meet him, and her mother 
or aunts who were with her would take up the hoe and carry on the 
work, so that she could talk with the chief’s son. If the chief’s son came 
to their lodge in the night, her relations did not object to her going out 
to meet him, for it was understood that he would in time marry her. The 
chief’s son, knowing that the girl came to him whenever he wanted her, 
decided that he would not marry her,for he had never asked her to marry 
him, neither had he ever asked her parents to let him marry her. He 
tried to think of some excuse that he could give for not marrying her, 
but he could not think of any. Finally he made up his mind to have his 
poor friend lie with the girl and then he could accuse her of faithlessness 
and refuse to marry her on that account. 
One night the chief’s son went to the lodge of the girl and asked her 
to meet him at a certain place a short distance from the village, for he 
wished to talk to her. She promised to meet him in a little while at the 
1Told by Buffalo, Skidi. The story, besides reciting the origin of one of the 
medicine ceremonies of the Skidi, conveys the moral that women should be true 
to their husbands. 
