And as Wa-choo-bay grew, so grew the wonder of the people, for he never cried, and he talked soon. Also from the first he appeared as one over whom many winters had passed.
When he reached that age when he should have played with the other boys, he did not play, but was much alone upon the prairie without the village. He never took part in the game of Pawnee zhay-day, the game of spear and hoop, which made the other boys laugh and shout.
One evening in his fifth year, his father, Sky-Walker, said to him:
“It is the time for the coming of the dreams to Wa-choo-bay. Let him go afar into a lonesome place without food and lift his hands and his voice to Wakunda. Four sleeps let him stay in the lonesome place, that his dream may come.”
So his mother smeared his forehead with mud and muttered to the spirits:
“Thus shall you know Wa-choo-bay, who goes forth to have his first dream. Send him a good dream.”
And Wa-choo-bay went forth into a lonesome place without food.
And on the morning of the fifth day, when the squaws were making fires, he returned, and as he entered the village and went to the lodge of his father the squaws gazed upon his face, seeing that which was very strange.
They wakened the sleepers in the lodges, saying:
“Wa-choo-bay is come back with a strange medicine-look upon his face! He has had a great dream; come and see.”