310 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
they were glad to see this woman perform when her husband had refused 
to aid his boy. The boy was now given the gourds. Then the woman 
began to sing and the men helped her. The boy was told to jump into 
the water with a gourd in each hand. When he jumped in he waved 
the gourds under the water and his mother told him to release them. 
The boy released them under the water, and after a while they came up 
and there were two ducks instead of the gourds. They swam around in 
the water, and after a while they returned to the boy, who caught them, 
and they turned again into gourds. When the boy came out from the 
water with the gourds the medicine-men were so glad that this had 
happened, that they began to mesmerize one another. They began to mes- 
merize the woman, but she had too much power for the men. When 
the medicine-men went into the lodge they told what the woman and the 
boy had done. The boy’s father was still sitting in his place with his 
head bowed, for he was angry. He could do many things, but none which 
could equal that of turning gourds into ducks. He was jealous. 
The medicine-men often spoke of the power of this woman and her 
child. Wherever the husband went after that the people spoke of his wife 
and boy as being wonderful. People thought they were doing a good act 
for him, but they were not, for the man was angry with the woman and 
her son. After the performance of the woman and the boy they returned 
home. They never went to the medicine-lodge again. After the cere- 
mony was finished, people began to make preparation to go hunting. 
They surrounded the buffalo several times. Once when they surrounded 
the buffalo the medicine-man took his son with him. They went far 
from the other people. After they had left the others far behind, the 
man turned to his son and said, ‘‘So you and your mother will outdo 
me in sleight-of-hand performances.’’ He took his bow and arrow, shot 
the boy in the side, and threw him into the river. Then the man went 
home. 
When he arrived at his home his wife said, ‘‘ Where is my son?”’ The 
man said that he did not know. Then the woman and the man went 
through the village hunting for their son. As the boy was not found 
the woman began to mourn. The father also began to cry. From that 
time on the boy was dead to them. Many years afterwards the boy’s 
father married another woman and no longer lived with his first wife, 
the mother of the boy. 
After the boy was thrown into the river the water took the boy’s 
body downstream until it came to an animals’ lodge. Here the body 
was stopped, but the animals said: ‘‘It is not our place to touch him. 
If we are to bring the boy back to life he must be taken to Pahuk.”’ 
