22 TRADITIONS OF THE CADDO. 
approached, the man raised his head, looked at him, and said: ‘‘ My 
boy, I want to give you some medicine, for I want you to have powers 
like mine.’’ ‘The old man took out many roots and told the boy to 
choose six of them. He took six of the roots; then the old man told 
him that he would have to go before six men, each of whom would 
explain the power of one medicine and how to use it. The boy did not 
want to go toso many men for fear he would not have time, and so he 
gave back four of the roots. Then he thanked the old man and started 
on his way. Soon he saw another old man sitting by the trail, and as 
he approached, the man arose, and when he came up to him he began 
to talk to the boy and explained the use of his medicine. While he 
was yet on the way, going toward the third man, he awoke. He 
returned to his mother’s lodge, but kept silent, and spoke to no one for 
many days, thinking always about his dream and the things that had 
been taught him. He wandered about alone, looking always for the 
medicine roots he had seenin hisdream. After many months he found 
the plant. 
Soon after there was a man in another village who was about to die, 
and when the young man heard of the sick man he determined to go 
and see him and try his powers. He called the medicine-men together 
and taught them the medicine dance-song that had been taught him in 
the dream; then they all went to the lodge where the sick man was. 
All the people wondered why the young man should call the men to 
sing medicine dance-songs for him, for they never thought of him as 
having power. He was with the sick man a long time before he could 
find out what was the matter with him. First, the dancers danced very 
slowly, and gradually increased the movement, as was their custom. 
So long was the young man in finding out what was the matter with 
the sick man, that the dancers were dancing as fast as they possibly 
could before he decided. ‘Thus they danced for six days and nights, 
and many of the dancers dropped to the ground exhausted. Finally 
the young man began to talk in a tongue no one understood, and he 
began to dance slowly. ‘Then the others knew that he had discovered 
what ailed the man. He fell to the ground and began to crawl like a 
mad bear. He crawled up to the sick man and, placing his mouth on 
the place where the greatest pain was, drew the pain out by blowing 
his breath on the place, and the pain was gone. The people knew 
then that the boy was in truth a medicine-man, and by his actions they 
knew that the Black-Mountain-Bear had given him power. It was the 
Bear who had appeared to the young man as an old man in his dream. 
From that time he was called Black-Mountain-Bear-Medicine-Man. 
Then the chief of the medicine-men’s society announced that all the 
