THE ORIGIN OF THE LOON MEDICINE CEREMONY. 261 
poor boy, through these Loons, became not only a warrior but a great 
medicine-man. A few years after the Loons had died the poor boy 
taught all that he knew to the son of the chief, for he was also broken in 
spirit. He finally died and all the mysteries of the medicine-man were 
left with the chief’s son. 
79. THE LIGHTNING’S MEDICINE CEREMONY.’ 
A long time ago the Kitkehahki had many ceremonies, but they did 
not have any medicine-men’s ceremonies. In one of their villages on 
the Republican River was born a girl baby. She had a birthmark upon 
her forehead. Some said, ‘‘It is the picture of the Moon.” Others 
said, ‘‘It is the picture of some Meteor or Star.”” As the child grew 
people noticed that her actions were peculiar. In the daytime she 
_stayed in the lodge most of the time. At night she went outside and 
either stood near the entrance or went upon the top of the lodge. She 
always looked at something in the heavens and sometimes seemed to be 
counting the stars. Her mysterious ways surprised the people. Her 
aged father said, ‘‘Let the friends and relatives of this girl let her alone.”’ 
She was given full freedom to run around through the timber or any- 
where she wanted to go. When she became older her parents kept her 
inside the lodge. 
In olden times it was customary for the old people to make for their 
daughters mats from rushes, and a pillow from the hide of a calf that 
was only a year old. The hair was left on the hide, and the pillow was 
sewed up with sinew and the hair of buffalo was put inside. Whenever 
there was a rainstorm the mats and pillows were rolled up and placed 
upon the beds. During the day they were used around the fireplace in 
the lodge. The old people made the mats and a pillow for the girl, who 
was growing into a beautiful young woman. The girl understood how to 
take care of her pillow and mats; also her buffalo robe. 
One day when the people were sitting around the fireplace, all at once 
the girl jumped up and said, as she started to go outside, ‘‘Mother, I be- 
lieve there is going to be a rainstorm.’”’ The men looked at one another. 
The women all said, ‘‘It will not rain, for it is clear; there are no clouds.”’ 
As the girl was returning to the lodge it thundered. The girl then said: 
1Told by Good-Food-in-Kettle, a Kitkehahki woman, who claims to be de- 
~gscended from the family mentioned in the story. This is considered one of the 
best of the Kitkehahki stories, and recounts the origin of a certain medicine cere- 
mony. It especially taught the people that the stars in the heavens can send one 
of their number to the earth to teach their ways. The supposed meteor which 
struck the girl, as related in the tale, was found and was in the possession of the 
family for many years, but was lost. 
