HANDSOME-BOY. 425 
The child stopped crying. The young woman took the child and put it 
upon her back and carried it around; then she gave him back to his father. 
The child’s mother came and went up to her husband and struck him 
several times and called him names, but he did not do anything or say a 
word. Then she said: ‘‘I will now kill you and our child.” She took 
out a knife, and just as she was about to stick the knife into the child 
Handsome-Boy’s new wife struck the woman back of the head with a club 
and threw her to the ground. Some men ran into the tipi as the woman 
fell to the ground. One of the men hit the woman with a club on the 
head and killed her. Handsome-Boy did not say a word; but the people 
had heard of the meanness of the woman and knew that she was a bad 
wife and mother. They said that they were glad that she was dead 
because she tried to kill her own child. Nothing was done to the woman 
who struck her, and Handsome-Boy married her. 
_ For several days Handsome-Boy sat in the tipi with the child in his 
lap. The chiefs of the tribe came into the tipi and sat with him to watch 
and guard over him, for they knew that his spirit was hurt. The chiefs 
would talk to him and say: ‘‘ You are the ruler of these people. Cheer up 
and do not feel downhearted.’’ Handsome-Boy at last spoke and said: 
“‘Chiefs, it is well that you are the chiefs. It is wrong that I should bea 
chief. I have taken many scalps and killed many people. You have 
given me the whole tribe to govern, but I can not do it, for when I try to 
tell the people what to do they will say that a woman hit me on the side 
of the face and will laugh at me and not obey mycommands. Iwill not 
bea chief.’’ He went to the home of his brother. He told the father to 
make a certain kind of leggings. The leggings were to be made of buck- 
skin with the scalps hanging down on them, and an eagle feather every 
inch between the human hairs. He also had the ring of scalps com- 
pleted. Each scalp counted the dead that he had killed. Handsome-Boy 
went into his tipi with his new wife. He arose and went out, having 
the leggings on, and he was never heard of again. 
If he died or was killed no one knows, but the night before he went he 
sat down and called the people together and told them that he had been 
to the Spirit-Land; that he had seen many of their relatives, and he told 
them how they must live and how good it was to die in battle. He told 
the people what the spirits had told him to tell them. Then he said to 
the people: ‘‘This is why I can not strike our people, even if it be my 
own wife. When it comes to an enemy, then I can strike and kill."’ The 
next day after this happened he went out and disappeared and never 
came back. This is why the Pawnee, in their secret ceremonies, wear 
leggings with scalps and eagle feathers for decoration. 
