THE MAN WHO MARRIED A DEER. 381 
into the village in the night and entered the medicine-men’s lodge. 
When the medicine-men saw him enter the lodge they greeted him with 
a great noise. The man then begged that he might do some sleight-of- 
hand performances. The medicine-men consented and the man went 
back to the Deer and the fawns, and when they were about to start the 
Deer turned into a woman and the fawns into children, one a boy and 
the other a girl. The man then took the woman to his home, and when 
he had taken her and the children into the lodge they had to put up 
an extra buffalo-hide tipi for them, because the odor of the people was 
offensive. 
When they had been there several days, the woman and the children 
became accustomed to the odor of the people; and the woman told the 
man to get ready, that she wanted to go to the medicine-lodge and do 
some sleight-of-hand performances. The man put a lot of white clay 
all over his body, and the woman spat at different places on his back, 
thus making the black marks. The woman and children were painted in 
the same way. The man then took them into the medicine-men’s lodge 
and they were given a place nearest to the entrance of the lodge, behind 
the cedar tree. The medicine-men then all agreed that this man should 
do the sleight-of-hand performances that night, for they were anxious to 
see what powers he had. The man and the woman asked the medicine- 
men to lend them deer antlers. The antlers were lent them and they 
began to sing. While they were singing, the man would take the 
antlers and place them upon his head, and the antlers would remain 
there. He would then ask some spectator to take them, but they were 
fastened. When he would reach for the antlers they would come off. He 
then threw the antlers to one side and went to the place where the chil- 
dren were and brought out the boy. He placed a young fawn skin over 
his back and they began to sing. The little boy began to jump around 
and after a while turned into a Deer. When the Deer began to jump 
around in the lodge the woman began to make a noise like that of a deer. 
The man then went to the fawn, and as he placed his hand upon its head 
it turned intoa boy again. When they had finished doing these things 
the man spoke to the medicine-men and said, ‘‘ Brothers, I and my wife 
have performed a little sleight-of-hand for you, and every night we 
shall come and continue our performance.’’ The medicine-men greeted 
them with yells in imitation of different animals. The woman and 
children then left the lodge and went to their home. Every night they 
did a little sleight-of-hand, and when the medicine-lodge dance was over 
the medicine-men met together in the medicine-lodge and invited the 
man to be with them. In this meeting the medicine-men all agreed that 
