e, Why-Why rushed out to find the most celebrated local medicine-man.
In half an hour the chief medicine-man appeared, dressed in the skin of a
wolf, tagged about with bones, skulls, dead lizards, and other ornaments
of his official attire. You may see a picture very like him in Mr.
Catlin's book about the Mandans. Armed with a drum and a rattle, he
leaped into the presence of the sick woman, uttering unearthly yells. His
benevolent action and "bedside manner" were in accordance with the
medical science of the time. He merely meant to frighten away the evil
spirit which (according to the received hypothesis) was destroying the
mother of Why-Why. What he succeeded in doing was to make Why-Why's
mother give a faint scream, after which her jaw fell, and her eyes grew
fixed and staring.

The grief of Why-Why was profound. Reckless of consequences, he
declared, with impious publicity, that the law which forbade a wife to
see her own husband, and the medical science which frightened poor women
to death were cruel and ridiculous. As Why-Why (though a promising
child) was still under age, little notice was taken of remarks which were
attributed to the petulance of youth. But when he went further, and
transgressed the law which then forbade a brother to speak to his own
sister, on pain of death, the general indignation was no longer
repressed. In vain did Why-Why plead that if he neglected his sister no
one else would comfort her. His life was spared, but the unfortunate
little girl's bones were dug up by a German savant last year, in a
condition which makes it only too certain that cannibalism was practised
by the early natives of the Mediterranean coast. These incidents then,
namely, the neglect of his unknown father, the death of his mother, and
the execution of his sister, confirmed Why-Why in the belief that radical
social reforms were desirable.

The coming of age of Why-Why was celebrated in the manner usual among
primitive people. The ceremonies were not of a character to increase his
pleasure in life, nor his respect for constituted authority. When he was
fourteen years of age, he was pinned, during his sleep, by four adult
braves, who knocked out his front teeth, shaved his head with sharp chips
of quartzite, cut off the first joint of his little finger, and daubed
his whole body over with clay. They then turned him loose, imposing on
him his name of Why-Why; and when his shaven hair began to show through