I came from above and I am holy. This is my second life on earth. Long
ago I lived on earth, long ago when this earth was full of wars. I used
to be a warrior then and I was a brave man.
Long ago in battle I was killed. As I went along I thought I had
stumbled and fallen on the ground. Then I got up again and went on my
way. To my home I went. When I got home my wife and my children were
there, but they would not look at me, they would not notice me. So I
spoke to my wife, but she did not show in any way that she was aware of
my presence. She did not show any signs that she was aware of anyone
speaking to her. There I stood. I could not converse with them and
they never looked at me. “What can be the matter?” I thought. At last
it occurred to me that I was probably dead, so I immediately started
out for the battlefield and there, surely enough, I saw my body lying.
Then, for the first time, I knew that I was dead.
After that I tried for a long time to return to my original home; for
four years I tried, but I failed, so I stayed on earth.
At one time I was a fish and I lived with them. Their life is much more
wretched than ours, for they are often in lack of food. Yet they are
happy beings for they have dances very often.
At another time I lived as a little bird. Now that is a wonderful
existence when the weather is good, but when it is cold, life is a
hardship. Often birds are in lack of food and suffer from cold. It was
my custom to go to the camp of certain people who lived near and to
stay there in the daytime. These people were hunting at the time and
from their meat-racks I used to steal a little food.
A little boy was staying with them and we were always terribly afraid
of him, for he had an object that was fear-inspiring. With this he
would shoot and make so great a noise that we would fly away. At night
we used to go home, to a hollow tree. Whenever I got there first, the
others, coming after me in great numbers, would almost squeeze me to
death and yet, on those occasions when I waited till all the others had
entered, I almost froze to death.
On another occasion I became a buffalo and lived as a buffalo lives.
Lack of food and cold weather did not bother us much, but we had to be
on the alert all the time against hunters.
Then from that place I went home, to my spirit-home up above, the
place I had originally come from. Now in the sky, up above, there is a
doctors’ home; that is the place I have come from.
After a while I wanted to leave my home and go to the earth again. The
person in charge of that home is my grandfather. He at first objected
to my going, but I asked him again and again. The fourth time I asked
him, he consented. He said to me: “Well, grandson, if you really wish
to go to the earth, you may go. Before you go, you had better fast, for
if any of the spirits have compassion upon you, then you will be able
to live in peace on earth.”
I fasted for four years, and the spirits above, even as far as the
fourth heaven, all approved of my going. They blessed me. Ten days I
fasted and after that I fasted twenty days; and again I fasted thirty
days. All the spirits blessed me, even those under the earth.
Then when I was ready to go to the earth, all the spirits gathered
around me and they had a council. In the center of the world, there,
they had a council. There they were to advise me. All the spirits were
present. They told me that I would not fail in anything I attempted.
There they tested my powers. The first thing they did was to place a
spirit grizzly bear at the end of the dancing lodge. This bear, it was
said, could not be hurt in any manner.
The lodge was full of spirits. Then they started to sing the songs
that I was to use when on earth. After that, I walked around the
fireplace, and taking a live coal, I held it in the palm of my hand and
danced around the fireplace again. Then I shouted “wahi!” and struck
the hand containing the live coal with the other hand. The bear, the
invulnerable bear, shot forward and fell to the ground, flat on his
stomach. A black substance oozed from his mouth.
Then the spirits said to me, “You have killed him. Powerful as he
was, you have killed him. Clearly never will anything evil succeed in
crossing your path.” That I would fail in nothing they told me. Then
they took the one that I had killed and taking a red knife they cut
him into pieces and piled him in the center of the lodge. There they
covered him with a dark covering and said. “Now! Again you must try
your strength.” So I asked for the objects that I was to use on earth,
a flute and a gourd. Those were the objects that I used.
Then I made myself holy. Those that had blessed me were present. Then I
walked around the one who had been cut into pieces and I breathed upon
him. Then for the second time I walked around the object and I breathed
upon him, and the rest within the lodge, breathed with me. Four times I
breathed upon him, and then he arose and walked away, a human being.
“Hoho, it is good,” they said, “he has restored him to life. Surely,
most surely, he is holy.” Thus they spoke to me. “Well, grandson, you
will ever be thus. Whatever exists you will be able to destroy and then
to restore to life again. Most surely have you been blessed.” Thus they
spoke to me.
Then they placed a black stone in the doctors’ lodge above, there where
I was blessed and again they put me to a test of strength. Four times
I breathed upon that stone and finally I made a hole right through the
stone by the force of my breathing. So now, whoever has a pain, if he
permits me to blow upon him, then I can blow his pain away for him. It
makes no difference what kind of pain it is, for my breath has been
made holy. They, the spirits, made my breath holy and strong.
Then the spirits presiding over the earth and those living under the
earth, they also gave me a trial. A rotten log was placed before me. I
breathed upon it, I spat water upon it, and the log rose up, a living
man. He walked away. This power of spitting upon people, of squirting
water upon people, I received from an eel; from an eel that was the
chief of all the eels, an eel that lives in the center of the ocean, in
the very deepest part of the ocean. He is perfectly white. He it is,
who blessed me. Therefore it is that I can use water and that the water
I possess is inexhaustible. This is what he told me.
Then I came to the people of the earth. Before I came, they all had a
council meeting about me. When I came, I entered a lodge and there I
was born again. I thought that I had entered a lodge, but it was really
my mother’s womb that I had entered. Not even then, at my birth, did
I lose consciousness. As I grew up I fasted again, and then again all
those who had blessed me before sent their blessings to me once more.
It is for that reason that I am the dictator over all these spirits.
Whatever I say will be so.
Now the tobacco you offered me is really not for myself, but for the
spirits, because I have really been sent here by the spirits to get
tobacco for them. Here, there is a sick person and you have offered me
tobacco. That is what I am on earth for: to accept this offering. I
tell you that this patient will live.
You will live, patient, so help yourself as much as you can and make
yourself strong. Now as I offer tobacco to the spirits, you must
listen, and if you feel that I am telling the truth, then you will gain
strength thereby.
Here is tobacco for you, O Fire! I offer tobacco to you. You promised
me that if I offered tobacco to you, you would grant me my request.
That you promised, if I placed tobacco upon your head. Did you not say
that to me after I had fasted for four days and you had blessed me?
Now here there comes a plea from a human being, from one who wishes to
live. Here, the tobacco is yours and I ask that within four days, he be
restored to his usual health. I ask that he regain his former health
and be even as the rest of us. I offer tobacco to you, grandfather.
Here it is.
May you, O Buffalo, also add your strength, add your power. Six days
I fasted and then you sent your spirit upon me. I entered your lodge,
your lodge that is in the center of this earth. You Buffalo, you who
are pure white in color, you blessed me. So likewise did the buffaloes
with the four different colors. Those blessings that you bestowed upon
me, those I now want. The gift of being able to breathe upon man, you
gave me. You told me I would not fail. Now that is what I desire.
Therefore it is that I ask that you add your strength as you promised,
for they, the people, have given me plenty of tobacco.
Now you, O Grizzly Bear, here is tobacco. At a place called
Pointed-hill there is a spirit in charge of a dancing lodge. Now all
those in that lodge blessed me and said that I would be able to kill
anything that confronted me; that I would also be able to restore to
life whatever I wished. Here I have opportunity of giving life to a
man. I want him to live. They have given me tobacco. Here it is. When
I was a ghost you took me to your home, and after I had fasted for ten
days you blessed me. Those things with which you blessed me, those
are the things that I now want. The people are offering you tobacco,
grandfathers,—here it is.
Now you, chief eel in the center of the ocean, you too blessed me after
I had fasted for eight days. With your power of breath did you bless
me, with your inexhaustible wealth of water. You gave me the gift of
using it whenever I treated a patient. That is what you told me. All
the water in the ocean you told me I could use. You blessed me with all
the objects that exist in the ocean. Now here is a man desiring life,
and I too wish him to live. It is for that reason that I speak to you
in this way. As I now squirt water upon him, may it be as though it
were your power. O grandfather, I offer you tobacco. Here it is. Here
is tobacco for you.
Now you who are above, Turtle, you who are in charge of a doctors’
lodge, you blessed me after I had fasted seven days and you carried me,
in spirit, to your home. There in your home I found all the birds who
have sharp claws and you all blessed me and you told me that however
bad the pain was, you would be able to extract it. Therefore it was
that you named me the extractor of pain. Now here comes a man with an
intense pain inside of him. I am the one to remove it for him, for I am
the one you blessed and whom you taught that in nothing would he fail.
I am going to heal this man. Here is the tobacco.
You of the snake home, you the perfectly white one, Rattlesnake! Did
you not bless me after I had fasted for four days? You said that on an
occasion like this, you would help me. You blessed me with your rattles
that I was to use as gourds. You blessed me and told me that I would
accomplish all that I attempted, by the use of the rattle. I offer you
tobacco therefore, that I may make this sick person live when I shake
my gourd. That life would be opened before him, that is what you told
me, grandfather.
Ho, you Night Spirits! You too blessed me after I had fasted nine days.
You took me to your village, situated in the east. There you told me
that your plants were sacred and you blessed me with them. Now that is
what I want. You made my flute sacred. That I am speaking the truth,
you well know. Now to me the people have come bringing a sick person,
for whom they desire life. I too want him to live. That is why I am
speaking to you. You promised always to accept my tobacco and here it
is, grandfathers.
Ho, here is tobacco for you, Disease-giver! After I had fasted for
two days, you caused me to know that you were the one that bestowed
diseases, that if I desired to heal one who is sick, that it would not
be difficult. To you, therefore, Disease-giver, I offer tobacco. I
offer you tobacco that this person, who is sick, may become well again.
That is what you promised me in your blessing.
Ho, you Thunder-birds! I offer you tobacco. When you blessed me, you
said you would help me if I needed you. Now here I have someone who
desires life. I, too, want him to live, and that is why I remind you of
your promise. I ask your help, grandfather, as you promised it to me.
Here is the tobacco.
Ho, I offer you tobacco, Sun. Here it is. You blessed me after I had
fasted for five days and you said that you would come to my relief
whenever I had a difficult object to accomplish. Now here is a man who
desires life. He comes with offerings of tobacco to you. Since you have
blessed me, the people have brought their offerings of tobacco to me.
Ho, grandmother, Moon! You too blessed me, Moon. You said that you
would also add your power. Here is a man who desires life and I call
on you to add your power, as you promised me, so that he may live.
Grandmother, here is tobacco.
Ho, grandmother, Earth! To you I also offer tobacco. You blessed me and
promised always to help me. You promised that I could use all the herbs
belonging to you, all the best ones, and that then I would not fail in
that which I attempted. Now that is what I ask on this occasion, and
that you keep the promise you made to me and help me. I ask you to do
for this sick man what these people are asking me to do for him. Make
my medicine powerful, grandmother.
Ho, you the chief of all the spirits! You too have blessed me and you
too said that you would help me. Therefore I offer you tobacco so that
this person may live. If his spirit is about to wander, I ask that you
keep away from him, that you do not seize him. This is what I ask of
you and why I offer you tobacco.
Ho-o-o, to all of you spirits I offer tobacco, to all of you who have
blessed me.