THE MAN WHO TURNED INTO A STONE. 119g 
38. THE MAN WHO TURNED INTO A STONE.* 
Once upon a time there was a big village on a prairie. In the 
village there was an old man who was respected by all. Because he 
was well known as a medicine-man he had one of the sacred bundles, 
and he used to call councils and many other meetings. If there was 
sacrifice to be offered to some of the gods it was brought before 
this old man, because the gods seemed always to make returns for all 
his offerings. For this reason, he was above all other medicine-men 
in the village. 
At one time a very large party went out from the village on a 
buffalo hunt. A few were left in the village. For many days one 
young man kept coming and reporting that the people were coming 
not very far away. The next day they saw them coming, but away in 
the distance. It was the custom for these people to go out to meet 
them before they reached the village, so many, including the old 
medicine-man, went out to meet them. The old man came to a hill, 
and there he sat down. The people traveled on foot in those days. 
As the party came to the old man they only saluted him. There was 
another custom of bringing some dried meat to some medicine-men, 
especially to this famous old man, and offering up sacrifices to the 
gods. This was the old man’s reason for going up there. Finally 
most of them passed toward the village, but none of the young men 
had any dried meat to present to the old man for him to give thanks 
to his sacred bundle. They all passed, save one young man who came 
last. When he saw the old man sitting there he saluted him and gave 
him a dried buffalo tongue. The old man did not seem thankful for 
it, but sat there with his head down. 
When they all reached the village they made many feasts, and 
councils were held in many places. The next day it was noticed that 
the old medicine-man was missing. They looked for him, but could 
not find him. One young man told that he had seen him sitting on 
the hill. So they went to the hill and asked the old man to come 
down, but he would not. One medicine-man took a sacred pipe from 
his bundle and offered it to the old man to smoke, so that he might 
forget his sorrows. The old man would not accept it, because, he said, 
it was too late. The people begged him to come, but still he sat there 
with his head cast downward. After a while he raised his head and 
said to all, that it was too late to get up, that he was to sit there 
always. He removed his blanket, and the people saw that his legs had 
*Told by Hawk. 
