264 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
among our people, but am among the gods. The stone in your lodge 
was a god, and was in the heavens. The lightning did not kill me; it was 
the stone that fell from the heavens. Stay not around this place longer, 
for I am to turn to stone and will not be able to hear you if you speak 
tome. Go home and make your bed on the north side of the stone. Let 
your pillow be near the stone, for it will speak to you when you are 
asleep. It is a god. When you speak to it, it will listen to you. The 
other gods will favor you in many things, for one of their number will 
be present with you.”’ 
The girl disappeared; then the father moved and opened his eyes, 
but for a long time could not see, for the light about the girl had dazzled 
his sight. At last he could see plainly, though it was night. He went 
home and told his wife that he had seen their daughter and that she had 
told him to lie by the stone. The woman said, ‘‘Husband, do what our 
daughter told you to do.”’ The father made his bed by the stone and 
laid down. While he was asleep he saw in his dream a man standing at 
the head of his bed. This man said: ‘‘My son, I liked your daughter. 
I came to her and killed her. I lost my place in the heavens. I am now 
here with you. I am one of the gods. Keep me at the altar, and do not 
let people come around where I am; keep them away. Cover me with 
the hide of a buffalo; in front of me make a little hole, and in this hole 
pour water, so that you will have fresh mud to put upon my body. 
You see I have the soft downy feathers upon my head. You did right 
when you put downy feathers upon my head. See, my robe is turned 
with the hair outside; my face is daubed with mud; red paint is around 
my mouth. I hold in my right hand something like a gourd rattle; in 
my left I hold an eagle wing; you seeI am a medicine-man. To-night 
I will tell you that I am notthe Lightning; I amagod. Your daughter 
is gone. I now take her place, and I will from this time on teach you to be 
a medicine-man. I stood high up in the heavens. I know where the 
animals’ lodges are, but these animals’ lodges will be, after I have opened 
the entrance, in the earth. It will be through my power that you will 
understand all of these things.” 
The next day the father sat up, but neither ate nor drank water. He 
went out to the creek and took a bath; then he went into the lodge again 
and picked up some mud from the holy place. He laid his hands upon 
the stone and said: ‘‘My father, my heart is glad, for I saw you last 
night. This mud I put upon my head and face. I will now go out upon 
some high hill; there I will stand and fast. If it is your wish that I 
fast and mourn let me know while I am there.”’ The father then went 
out of the lodge and went west. At the first hill he came to he stopped 
