THE BEAR MEDICINE. 339 
leader of all the Bears; that the Sun communicated with him directly, 
and that he was the son of the Sun. He said: ‘“‘I shall take pity upon 
you, my boy, for I want you to go back to your people. Let them 
know that they must not come around my den and try to kill me, for 
they can not kill me. I also want you to go into the lodge of the Bears 
and take your place on the north side of the lodge, so that you will always 
face the south. I shall also teach you to do sleight-of-hand.’’ 
The Bear began to sing and he turned the cubs into human beings, 
_ and also the mother Bear; then he turned himself into a man. All the 
time he continued tosing Bear songs. The Bear took a bow and arrows, 
ran up to the boy, and shot him in the side with an arrow. The arrow 
fell back and did not pierce him. The next time the Bear ran up to the 
boy and blew different colored dusts upon his side; then he went back a 
few paces and shot at the boy with an arrow, so that the arrow went 
through the boy and he fell over. The Bear and his wife and children 
all got around him and worked over him until they restored him to life. 
All these things they taught the boy. For several days the boy sat in 
the Bear’s den, learning the secrets of the Bear. The Bear spoke and 
said: “‘The people have been killing many buffalo; they have remained 
several days; now they are about to continue their journey and I shall 
let you go; but remember that you are one of us now, and that you 
must visit me once in a while.’’ They sang another song, and father 
and mother seized the children, tumbled them over several times, and 
they were turned into Bears again. Then the woman was seized by the 
man himself, and she turned into a Bear. Then the mother Bear and 
the children fell upon the man and he was again turnedintoa Bear. Now 
they went around the boy, took hold of him, and he was turned into a Bear. 
They ran around in their den a certain number of times and then rested. 
The boy was caught again and turned into a human being. Then the 
Bear took him to the place where the cedar tree was standing. The 
- Bear reached up in the tree, took down one bear claw and strung it on 
a string of buckskin, and put it around the boy’s neck. The Bear now 
told the boy to put his breath into his, and that now he had the different 
colors of dust in him, which were very curative; so that when he went 
home if anyone was wounded, or if there were sores on anyone, all he 
had to do was to touch his sides with the palms of his hands, blow his 
breath, and the dust would come; for it was the spirit of the Bear that 
had been given him; and if the people should make him angry, it was 
now possible for his canine teeth to come out as did those of the Bear, 
so that he must be very careful among his own people. The Bear also 
said: ‘‘Now, I have given you my power; you are my son. You shall 
