THE ORIGIN OF THE GEESE MEDICINE. 303 
they had taken with them, so that they had corn to eat as well as dried 
meat. 
One day while the young man was gone, one of the Geese spoke and 
said, “‘My mother, why are we so far from everybody?”? The woman 
replied that they had run away because they had been threatened with 
death. The Goose spoke to the girl and said, ‘‘Mother, you tell our 
father that we want him to go south, for there are many people, and he 
can capture ponies and we will watch over him and get him back to this 
place.’’ When the boy came home she told him what the Goose had 
said. The young man then spoke and said that he would go, and the 
next day the young man went south. After about four days one of the 
Geese said: ‘‘Mother, I will follow our father and I will find out if he 
is well.”” The Goose followed him and was gone several days. One day 
the Goose came back and said: ‘‘My mother, our father is well. He is 
- near the enemy’s camp.” 
In a few days the Goose told the mother that he would go again and 
see where his father was. He again flew away and was gone for many 
days. One day he came back and said, ‘‘ Mother, our father will be here 
in a few days with many ponies.’’ The young man came back with many 
ponies. Then the Goose said, ‘‘Mother, tell our father that we must 
return to our people.’’ The mother told the young man, and he said, ‘‘ We 
will go.”” They started upon their journey. The Geese flew overhead, 
and when they saw any buffalo they came back and told the mother to tell 
the father to go out and kill the buffalo. The young man would go out 
on the pony and kill buffalo; then they would make theircamp. The 
young man killed so many buffalo on the journey that they had much dry 
meat. The Geese flew on one day and came back and said, ‘‘ Mother, we 
have seen our people’s village.’”’ They went on and came to the village 
in the night. The young man made their tipi outside of the village. 
In the morning the young man told his wife to cook meat. He went 
and invited the homely young man, who came, and the young man told 
the homely young man to go and invite as many people as he wanted. 
Among those invited was the father of the girl When the people came 
into the tipi they saw the Geese sitting at the entrance. They ate much 
meat and returned to their homes, and said that the young man who had 
disappeared with the girl had come back with many ponies and much 
meat. They also told the people that they had two Geese with them 
who acted like people. The father of the young girl invited the young 
man to his tipi and told him not to think about the time that he was 
ready to take his life, for now he was glad that he had come back with his 
daughter as his wife. 
