Not long after that the little Star Boy said, “Let us go out and kill little birds.” They went out, and when they had got some distance from the lodge he said, “Brother, let us go over to that place where grandmother told us not to go.” The other boy said: “It is good. We will go.” They went over there, and when they had gone into the thick timber, suddenly they saw a bear. It seemed very angry and roared and growled. The Star Boy laughed at it, and walked up to it and tapped it on the head with his bow. His father was using his power so that the bear could not hurt him. The boy took the bear home with him to the lodge, and called to his grandmother to come [[81]]out and said, “Grandmother, here is a bear; you can have him to pack wood and water for you.” The old woman was scared. The boy killed the bear with his little arrows.
One day after that the old woman said to the boys: “Now, boys, do not go to that thick-timbered place over there. That is where some of your brothers and relations disappeared. Do not go there.” Soon after this, one day when they were out hunting little birds and had got away from the lodge, the Star Boy said, “Brother, let us go over to that place where grandmother told us not to go. Let us see what is there.” They went, and as they were going along through the timber they saw a panther. The panther growled and looked very fierce, but the boy walked up to it and shot his little arrow at it and killed it. His father was helping him. The boys skinned it and took it home and stuffed it with grass and stood it up in the lodge. Their grandmother was away. When she came back they told her to go into the lodge; they said, “We have something nice for you in there.” She went into the lodge, and when she saw the panther she was frightened almost to death, and the boys laughed. The [[82]]boys said to the old woman, “Grandmother, we have done this so that we could put this skin outside the lodge to scare away other animals so that they will not come near us.”
The grandmother said: “Boys, boys, you must not do as you have been doing. You must not go so far away, and you must not go into danger. Right up there on the hill is a den of snakes. I do not want you to go there. You must not go near that place.” Soon after this the Star Boy said to his playmate: “Brother, let us go over to that hill where the snakes live. Let us each take a piece of rock and we will kill them.” They went, and when they got to the place he said: “Sit down. Put your rock on the ground and sit down on it. I know what the snakes are going to do, but our father will take care of us.”
The snakes came out of the den—great lots of them—and came towards the boys. All at once the boys saw a cloud rising and coming towards them, and pretty soon it began to rain where the snakes were, and the water got so deep that the snakes were swimming, but where the boys were it did not rain. On them the sun was shining warm and bright. Then the [[83]]sun got hotter and hotter, and at last it was so hot it made the water boil and killed all the snakes.
The boys went home, and the old woman’s grandson told her what had happened—just how it all was. Then she said to him: “Grandson, I believe there is power in this little boy. Now we will go back to our people.” They had left their people because they were poor and had no horses, and the others in the camp did not take care of them. She said, “We will go back and try to find out where this boy came from, and whether he is a relative of any of our people there.” Before they started the grandmother asked the Star Boy where he came from. He told her that he did not know; that he had come from above, but he remembered that his mother had told him that they did not belong up there, but down below, and that she had been taken up by a star. He said that she had come down with him on her back, but had been killed by a stone dropped from above, which had hit her on the head but did not kill him.
Then the old woman remembered that once a girl had disappeared one night from the camp [[84]]when she was sleeping on an arbor, and that this girl was the daughter of a chief.
They left their lodge and went back to their people. When they reached the camp, they had a lodge of their own and all lived together. His relations, when they found out who the Star Boy was, wanted him to come and live with them, but for a long time he would not do so. When he did go, he took the old woman and her grandson with him.
When he grew up he began to go on the war-path, and he had good luck and struck many of his enemies. At length he married the daughter of a chief, and the grandson married another daughter. [[85]]