[Footnote 1:  This word may be translated as “of the Sun,” “having Sun power,” or more properly, something sacred.]

Further said the Sun:  “Which is the best, the heart or the brain?  The brain is.  The heart often lies, the brain never.”  Then he told Scarface everything about making the Medicine Lodge, and when he had finished, he rubbed a powerful medicine on his face, and the scar disappeared.  Then he gave him two raven feathers, saying:  “These are the sign for the girl, that I give her to you.  They must always be worn by the husband of the woman who builds a Medicine Lodge.”

The young man was now ready to return home.  Morning Star and the Sun gave him many beautiful presents.  The Moon cried and kissed him, and called him “my son.”  Then the Sun showed him the short trail.  It was the Wolf Road (Milky Way).  He followed it, and soon reached the ground.

IV

It was a very hot day.  All the lodge skins were raised, and the people sat in the shade.  There was a chief, a very generous man, and all day long people kept coming to his lodge to feast and smoke with him.  Early in the morning this chief saw a person sitting out on a butte near by, close wrapped in his robe.  The chief’s friends came and went, the sun reached the middle, and passed on, down towards the mountains.  Still this person did not move.  When it was almost night, the chief said:  “Why does that person sit there so long?  The heat has been strong, but he has never eaten nor drunk.  He may be a stranger; go and ask him in.”

So some young men went up to him, and said:  “Why do you sit here in the great heat all day?  Come to the shade of the lodges.  The chief asks you to feast with him.”

Then the person arose and threw off his robe, and they were surprised.  He wore beautiful clothes.  His bow, shield, and other weapons were of strange make.  But they knew his face, although the scar was gone, and they ran ahead, shouting, “The scarface poor young man has come.  He is poor no longer.  The scar on his face is gone.”

All the people rushed out to see him.  “Where have you been?” they asked.  “Where did you get all these pretty things?” He did not answer.  There in the crowd stood that young woman; and taking the two raven feathers from his head, he gave them to her, and said:  “The trail was very long, and I nearly died, but by those Helpers, I found his lodge.  He is glad.  He sends these feathers to you.  They are the sign.”

Great was her gladness then.  They were married, and made the first Medicine Lodge, as the Sun had said.  The Sun was glad.  He gave them great age.  They were never sick.  When they were very old, one morning, their children said:  “Awake!  Rise and eat.”  They did not move.  In the night, in sleep, without pain, their shadows had departed for the Sand Hills.

ORIGIN OF THE I-KUN-UH’-KAH-TSI[1]