He sat in the shade of the lodge, smoking his pipe. His face was thin, keen, and very expressive. The clear brown of his skin was pleasant to see, and his hair, wavy from long confinement in braids, was glossy as a blackbird’s wing. Around his neck he wore a yellow kerchief—yellow was his “medicine” color—and he held a soiled white robe about his loins. He was about fifty years of age, but seemed less than forty.
He studied me quizzically as I communicated to him my wish to hear the story of his life, and laughingly muttered some jocose remark to his pretty young wife, who sat near him on a blanket, busy at some needlework. The humorous look passed out of his face as he mused, the shadows lengthened on the hot, dry grass, and on the smooth slopes of the buttes the sun grew yellow.
After a long pause, he lifted his head and began to speak in a low and pleasant voice. He used no gestures, and his glance was like that of one who sees a small thing on a distant hill.
“I am well brought up,” were his first words. “My father was chief medicine man[1]of his tribe, and one who knew all the stories of his people. I was his best-loved son, and he put me into the dances of the warriors when I was three years old. I carried one of his war-bonnet feathers in my hand, and was painted like the big warriors.
“When my father wished to give a horse to the Cut Throat or Burnt Thigh people who visited us and danced with us, he put into my hands the little stick which counted for a horse, and I walked across the circle by his side and handed the stick to our friend. Then my mother was proud of me, and I was glad to see her smile.
“My father made me the best bows, and my mother made prettymoccasins for me, covered with bright beads and the stained quills of the porcupine. I had ponies to ride, and a little tepee of my own in which to play I was chief.
“When I was a little older I loved well to sit near my father and the old men and hear them tell stories of the days that were gone. My father’s stories were to me the best of all, and the motions of his hands the most beautiful. I could sit all day to listen. Best of all I liked the stories of magic deeds.
“One day my father saw me holding my ear to the talk, and at night he said to me, ‘My son, I see you are to be a medicine man. You are not to be a warrior. When you are older, I will teach you the secrets of my walk, and you shall follow in my path.’
“Thereafter I watched everything the medicine men did. I crept near, and listened to their words. I followed them with my eyes when they went aside to pray. Where magic was being done—there was I. At the dance I saw my father fling live squirrels from his empty hand. I saw him breathe smoke upon the body of a dead bird, and it awoke and ran to a wounded man and tore out the rotting flesh and cured him. I saw a mouse come to life in the same way. I saw the magic bladder move when no one touched it; and I saw a man buried and covered with a big stone too great for four men to lift, and I saw him come forth as if the stone were a blanket.
“I saw there were many ways to become a medicine man. One man went away on a high mountain, and there stood and cried all the day and all the night, saying:
“‘O Great Spirit!I am a poor man.I want to be wise.I want to be big medicine man.Help me, Great Spirit!I want to be honored among my people.Help me get blankets, horses.Help me raise my children.Help me live long,Honored of my people.’
“‘O Great Spirit!I am a poor man.I want to be wise.I want to be big medicine man.Help me, Great Spirit!I want to be honored among my people.Help me get blankets, horses.Help me raise my children.Help me live long,Honored of my people.’
“‘O Great Spirit!
I am a poor man.
I want to be wise.
I want to be big medicine man.
Help me, Great Spirit!
I want to be honored among my people.
Help me get blankets, horses.
Help me raise my children.
Help me live long,
Honored of my people.’
“So he chanted many hours, without food or water, and it was cold also. At last he fell down in a sleep and dreamed. When he came home, he had medicine. A big bird had told him many secrets.
“Another went into a sweat house to purify himself. He stayed all night inside, crying to the Great Spirit. He, too, dreamed, but he did not tell his dreams.
“A third man went into his tepee on a hill near the camp, and there, with nothing to eat or drink, sat crying like the other two, and at last he slept, and in the night voices that were not of his mouth came in the tepee, and I, who listened unobserved, was afraid, and his women were afraid also. He soon became a great medicine man; and I went to my father, and I said:
“‘Make me a medicine man like Spotted Elk.’
“He looked upon me and said:
“‘My son, you are too young.’
“Nevertheless I insisted, and he promised that, when I became sixteen years of age, he would help me to become like Spotted Elk. This pleased me.
“As I grew older I put away in my memory all the stories my father knew of our people. I listened always when the old men talked. I watched the medicine men as they smoked to the Great Spirits of the world. I crept near, and heard them cry to the Great Spirit overhead and to the Dark One who lives below the earth. I listened all the time, and by listening I grew wise as an old man.
“I knew all the wonderful stories of the coyote and of the rattlesnake. I knew what the eagle said to his mate, and I knew the power of the great bear who sits erect like a man. I was a hunter, but I followed the game to learn its ways. In those days we were buffalo eaters. We did not eat fish, nor fowl, nor rabbits, nor the meat of bear. Our women pounded wild cherries and made cakes of them, and of that we ate sometimes, but always we lived upon buffalo meat, and we were well and strong, not as we are now.
“I learned to make my own bows and also to make moccasins,though that was women’s work, and I did not sew beads or paint porcupine quills. I wanted to know all things—to tan hides, to draw pictures—all things.
“By and by time came when I was to become a medicine man. My father took me to Spotted Elk, the greatest of all medicine men, he that could make birds from lumps of meat and mice from acorns.
“To him my father said: ‘My son wishes to be great medicine man. Because you are old and wise I bring him to you. Help me to give him wisdom.’
“Then they took me to a tepee on a hill far from the camp, and there they sat down with me and sang the old, old songs of our tribe. They took food, and offered it to the Great Spirits who lived in the six directions, beginning at the southeast. Then they smoked, always beginning at the southeast. This they taught me to do, and to chant a prayer to each. Then they closed the tepee, and left me alone.
“All night I cried to the Great Spirits:
“‘Hear me—oh, hear me!You are close beside me.You are here in the tepee.Hear me, for I am poor and weak.I wish to be great medicine man.I need horses, blankets. I am a boy.I wish to be great and rich.Hear me—oh, hear me!’
“‘Hear me—oh, hear me!You are close beside me.You are here in the tepee.Hear me, for I am poor and weak.I wish to be great medicine man.I need horses, blankets. I am a boy.I wish to be great and rich.Hear me—oh, hear me!’
“‘Hear me—oh, hear me!
You are close beside me.
You are here in the tepee.
Hear me, for I am poor and weak.
I wish to be great medicine man.
I need horses, blankets. I am a boy.
I wish to be great and rich.
Hear me—oh, hear me!’
“All night, all next day I cried. I grew hungry and cold by and by. I fell asleep; then came to me in my sleep a fox, and he opened his mouth, and talked to me. He told me to put weasel skin full of medicine, and wear fox skin on my head, and that would make me big medicine. Then he went away, and I woke up.
Indian with upstretched arms