260 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
In a few days the chief’s boy wanted to go again, and so another war 
party was formed. One night when they had been gone for several days 
the Loon was sitting at the foot of the bed of the wife of the poor boy. 
A young man from another lodge thought of the young man’s wife. He 
thought to himself: ‘‘Her husband is gone far away. I shall go and 
lie with his wife and he will know nothing about it.” He went into 
her lodge and crawled into her bed. She tried to make him leave, but 
he remained, and after she had consented he felt something at the foot 
of the bed and he kicked it and said, ‘‘ What is this thing sitting here?”’ 
He kicked it and the Loon jumped from the bed and began to make a 
loud noise. The woman then scolded the young man and told him that he 
had done wrong, for he had hurt the Loon’s feelings and that it might 
tell her husband. The young man jumped up and ran out of the lodge. 
In a few days the war party returned without ponies. The warriors 
told how on a certain night the young man had jumped up and said, 
‘‘Something has gone wrong; we must return to our village.’”’ When 
the young man returned he found that the Loon was sick. The young 
man remained near the Loon and cared for it, but it grew worse. The 
woman was scolded and was told to leave the lodge and never to return 
again. The young man every night when he lay down placed the 
Loon by the head of his bed. The Loon spoke to him and said: ‘‘ Your 
wife allowed a man to come to her bed and let him stay with her. When 
the man was here he kicked me from the bed. I am very sorry. I am 
going to die. My spirit is broken, but when I am dead, take off my 
skin and throw the flesh into the waters. Keep the skin. My spirit 
shall remain with the skin and I shall be with your people and shall 
speak to you in dreams. My father, the poor boy, knows how they are 
to use me in the medicine-lodge. Do not destroy my skin.” In a day 
or so afterwards the Loon died. The young man skinned the Loon 
and threw the flesh into the water, and hung the skin on a high pole. 
In a few days the other Loon died and it was also skinned. 
In the summer time when the medicine-men had their ceremony the 
poor boy started the Loon Dance. The two Loons were carried by two 
errand men and all other animals followed—that is, each medicine-man 
who represented an animal followed. After the dance was over, the 
Loons were placed in a sacred bundle, and these were carried by warriors 
when upon the war-path. When the medicine-men had their cere- 
monies they took the Loons out and stood them in front of the medicine- 
men, remembering that those two Loons taught mysteries and the 
wonderful ways of the animals to the people. They also taught the 
people the use of the different roots and herbs for sickness. Thus the 
