THE POWER OF THE BLOODY. SCALPED-MAN. I2I 
the west of the village where young men had been scared away. He 
went to the place and stood upon a hill which was close to the Mis- 
souri River. He stood there for three days and nights, and during 
the third night he heard a mysterious noise from the Missouri River. 
He looked, and saw a man coming. The man approached, and said, 
“You will please leave at once, for you make too much noise around 
this place.” The man had a war-club in his right hand. His body 
was daubed all over with white clay; his head was red with blood 
and the blood was dripping from his forehead. The boy became 
scared, and he ran home. He told one of his friends what had hap- 
pened to him and his friend laughed at him for running away from 
the place where he had gone to get some power. 
‘The young man’s friend made up his mind that he would go to 
the hill. He went to the hill, and there he stood and cried for three 
days and three nights. On the fourth night a being came up, and 
sure enough, it was the very same being that the first young man 
had seen. The boy became scared, but he closed his eyes and thought, 
“Well, I came here to see this being, and if he wants to kill me he can 
do so.” The young man made up his mind not to run. He looked 
at the man as he approached. Drops of fresh blood were dripping 
from his head, so that he looked as if he had just been scalped. The 
young man closed his eyes and the man came up to him, and said, 
“If you do not run, I will hit you with this club!” ‘The boy did not 
move, but the man did not strike him with his club. At last the man 
said: “Come with me. I am the errand man of the men who live 
under this hill.” So the man took the boy down towards the Mis- 
souri River, and there, under the bank, was an entrance. They went 
into this entrance, and there they found a long passageway along 
which they traveled, and finally they came to a cave. ‘There the men 
were seated around in a circle; but not one of them was scalped. 
The man who took the young man into this place now took off the 
headdress that he had on, and his hair fell over his shoulders. He 
placed his war-club and the bloody headdress that he had had on his 
head, before the leading man. The man took his seat at the en- 
trance, and the young man was given a seat in the lodge. The leader 
of the men in the lodge said: ‘You are the first young man who 
has not run from our errand man, and now we will give you the 
power that we possess. When you want to perform the same thing 
that you saw that man do, take wild sage, put it on hot coals, and 
smoke yourself over your body. Then take this sweet grass and spread 
