348 THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE CEREMONIES OR POWER. 
bank, and on the bank was a cedar tree. The Bear slid toward the 
tree and disappeared. The woman followed and disappeared, too. In 
another moment she saw that she was in a Bear’sden. The den inside 
was like an earth-lodge. On the south side of the lodge lay the Bear’s 
wife, with her paws on the ground and her head resting upon her paws. 
The Bear made a peculiar noise, and six cubs came from the north side of 
the den and sat down. The Bear again made a peculiar noise and his 
wife sat up. She looked at the woman, who sat by the entrance on the 
south side. The Bear spoke to the woman and said: ‘‘I took pity on 
you and asked my wife to help you, and she has promised that she will. 
Now the first thing we shall do for you is to give you a promise, and if 
you do as we tell you, our promise will be good. Run after our cubs 
and you shall have children equal to the number of cubs you catch.” 
The woman arose and ran after the cubs. The cubs looked so clumsy 
and big that she thought she could catch all of them. She ran after 
them, but she could not catch a single one. She was giving out, but she 
did not give up. She kept on running until the youngest Bear gave out 
and fell behind the others, and the woman reached out and caught it by 
the legs. She held it in her left arm and ran again until she succeeded 
in catching another, but as she then had two Bears she could not run any 
more, so she gave up trying. The Bear told her that the two Bears were 
hers and that she could take them home. Then he blew his red dust 
breath into her face, then his yellow breath, then his black breath, and 
then his white breath. When this was done, the Bear said: ‘If a man 
is wounded you must blow these different breaths into the wound and he 
will feel better and soon get well. Now my wife will teach you some- 
thing.”’ 
The female Bear went up to the woman, put her fore legs around her 
neck, and then coughed up a piece of powdered cherry. The woman 
ate this. Then the female Bear coughed another substance, and this 
time it was a piece of powdered hackberry. The woman ate this up. 
Again the Bear coughed up something, and this time it was powdered 
bull-berry. The woman ate it. ‘“‘Now,’’ said the Bear, ‘‘you are pre- 
pared to doctor the sick; when you have blown the different breaths upon 
the sick, you can cough these different powdered berries and give them to 
the sick and they will at once feel better.’’ The Bears kept the woman 
in their den, teaching her many mysterious things. At last the male 
Bear said: “It is time for you to go home. Take this red paint of 
mine and this red downy feather. Give them to your husband and tell 
him that I gave them to him.’’ The female Bear said: ‘‘I give youmy 
yellow paint and my yellow feather; take them; they are yours. When 
