The people had tobacco in the beginning, but they had used it all, and
there was great suffering for want of it. There was one old man so old
that he had to be kept alive by smoking, and as his son did not want
to see him die he decided to go himself to try and get some more. The
tobacco country was far in the south, with high mountains all around
it, and the passes were guarded, so that it was very hard to get into
it, but the young man was a conjurer and was not afraid. He traveled
southward until he came to the mountains on the border of the tobacco
country. Then he opened his medicine bag and took out a hummingbird
skin and put it over himself like a dress. Now he was a hummingbird
and flew over the mountains to the tobacco field and pulled some of
the leaves and seed and put them into his medicine bag. He was so
small and swift that the guards, whoever they were, did not see him,
and when he had taken as much as he could carry he flew back over the
mountains in the same way. Then he took off the hummingbird skin and
put it into his medicine bag, and was a man again. He started home,
and on his way came to a tree that had a hole in the trunk, like a
door, near the first branches, and a very pretty woman was looking
out from it. He stopped and tried to climb the tree, but although he
was a good climber he found that he always slipped back. He put on
a pair of medicine moccasins from his pouch, and then he could climb
the tree, but when he reached the first branches he looked up and the
hole was still as far away as before. He climbed higher and higher,
but every time he looked up the hole seemed to be farther than before,
until at last he was tired and came down again. When he reached home
he found his father very weak, but still alive, and one draw at the
pipe made him strong again. The people planted the seed and have had
tobacco ever since.