“A medicine man told me,” said Little Creek, “that people who have died and are unhappy in the spirit world, take the form of owls and come back to their old haunts. They travel only at night and dread the sunlight, because their deeds in this world were evil.” Again the owl hooted, this time from another tree. “Kyai!” exclaimed Strikes-on-Both-Sides, “there it is again. Just before my sister died, she saw an owl looking at the door of her tepee. She was so frightened, she told a medicine man; he said to use black paint on her face; if the owl came back, the paint would ward off the evil. But it was no use; my sister died in a few days.” This ghostly talk by the fire, under the nocturnal spell of the forest, made the women afraid. To allay their fears, Little Creek said: “An owl never harms any one in a crowd, if he has a relative there.” So he left the circle of firelight, and going to the edge of the woods shouted to the owl, “You are my relative.” Then the owl flew away, and I asked Little Creek: “What is the spirit world like?” He said: “We call it the Sand Hills, a white alkali country—far east on the plains. It is surrounded by quicksands that the living may not enter. The ghost people chase ghost buffalo and antelope. They have wild berries and other things such as we like to eat. Old Person once died for a day and a night, but his spirit returned to his body. He told the watchers he had been to the Sand Hills, but was not allowed to enter; his time to die had not yet come. His body was wet with sweat when his spirit came back; they drove him from the Sand Hills.” Nitana said: “Ghosts like to stay near forests and rivers. People who sleep alone in a thick forest are sometimes bothered by ghosts pulling off their blankets in the night and hitting them with sticks. But a person may never see the ghost. If it bothers him too much, he can offer his pipe with tobacco and pray: ‘Ghost, pity me! I am poor and alone. Take this pipe and smoke. I pray go away and leave me in peace.’ If the ghost will not leave, but keeps on bothering the person, it sometimes bestows upon him the power to doctor people.” “Ghosts of dead medicine men are the worst. They are known as ‘the haunting spirits.’ It is they who use the ghost shots, and kill people who go outside the tepee at night. This fate often happens to sick people; they are shot at by ghosts; and when they go back to bed, they die in their sleep. Sometimes a person who goes outside at night, comes back breathing heavily, as if he were smothering. He tells his people that he saw something; and then they know that he was shot at by a ghost. But he can be cured by a medicine man who has power over ghost shots. This medicine man finds out the spot where he cannot breathe; and then he doctors him; he draws out the shot—he may suck it out with his mouth.