“So the young wife went back to her husband and said: ‘You will have another wife; it is a girl baby.’ He was pleased and said:
“ ‘Take some of these buffalo bones to your mother, that she may make soup with them and be able to raise the child.’
“But the young wife, on the sly, put some good meat with the bones.
“Now this all happened in the morning; and, when night came, the child (Smoking Star), kept looking at the lodge-poles and then at the old man. The old man was wise. He knew now that this child was supernatural and would help them. He took up the baby and held him first towards the lodge-pole on the south side of the door. The baby smiled; and they knew that this was what he wanted. So they held him towards each lodge-pole in turn, and after each pole the child grew larger. When he was halfway round the tepee, he was too heavy for the old man to hold; he stood him on the ground and kept turning him, until he faced the last lodge-pole on the south side of the door. By this time the child had grown to be a man.
“He said: ‘I am hungry. Give me to eat.’
“The old woman replied: ‘My son, your brother-in-law over there is trying to starve us.’
“Then she cooked him the last piece of meat which her youngest daughter had brought them. The young man said:
“ ‘I am Smoking Star. I came down from my home in the sky to help you. And when I have done this, I shall return again to the sky.’
“He went out and made a bow for himself from the rib of a buffalo and used a tendon for the string. He also made arrows and flints for arrow-tips. When everything was ready, he asked the old man where they went to hunt, and said: [[96]]
“ ‘We shall start at break of day, before your son-in-law is awake.’