Right away the sister knew that he had seen a Skoks; she said: “My brother, why did you come so far alone?”
“My grandmother threw me out,” said the boy. “I thought I was going to die.”
The sister cried; she felt sorry for her brother.
He began to be sleepy. Skoks made him feel that way; she was coming to him again. She was going to be his medicine and make him a great doctor. He rubbed ashes on the right side of his face; on the left side he made stripes with a black coal, then he asked his sister to sing for him. She didn’t want to sing, for the first person who sings for a doctor must go with him always, and sing for him. When he asked the second time, she sang. They didn’t see the Skoks, but Ktilisúnak knew she was there. [[372]]
Every evening the young man called out as Skoks called, when he met her on the flat; then he fell to the ground and was senseless till Skoks got through talking to him. Each time his sister asked: “What does your medicine want?”
“I see a crowd of medicines around me,” said he. “They want somebody to sing and talk for them. You must go and ask old men to come and talk five days for them.”
The sister went to Blaiwas’ village, where there were many old men. They came and sang and told the medicine spirits what they must do. They said: “If you want this young man to work for you, you must be good to him; you mustn’t make him crazy.” Then they asked each medicine what it wanted. Skoks wanted a cap made of tula grass, and two grass plates. Eagle medicine wanted eagle feathers, and fish-hawk medicine wanted fish-hawk feathers. Each bird medicine wanted its own kind of feathers.
The old men got all of those feathers, and tied them on a long pole. There is a dream medicine, and the man who has it can cure himself, but he can’t cure others. That medicine came to Ktilisúnak.
When the old men finished singing and talking, they said to the sister: “You mustn’t cook or sweep or have any dust around when your brother is in the house. In the evening don’t stir the ashes or let them fly up when you put wood on the fire; if you do, he will die; he is afraid of his medicines. Don’t tease him to eat; let him eat when he wants to. If his medicines trouble him, we will come and talk to them.”
The young man lay in the house day after day.—Doctors don’t go out often; they go only when sick people send for them.