th grew dry, and my neck sore; so that to swallow, or
even to open my mouth in prayer hurt me. It seemed a long time before the
sun got overhead and the pole cast but a small shadow; but it seemed that
the shadow of the pole grew long in the afternoon much more slowly than it
had grown short in the morning.
I was very tired, and my legs were shaking under me, when at last, as the
sun hung low over the western hills, I saw someone coming. It was my
friend, Tom Lodge; and when he had come close to me, he spoke to me and
said, "My son, have you been faithful all through the day?" I answered him,
"Father, I have walked and prayed all day long, but I cannot tear out these
pins." "You have done well," he said; and, drawing his knife, he came to
me, and taking hold first of one pin and then of the other, he cut off the
strips of skin which passed about the pins, and set me free. He held the
strips of skin that he had cut off, toward the sky, and toward the four
directions, and prayed, saying: "Listen! all you spirits of the air, and of
the earth, and of the water; and you, O earth! and you, O sun! This is the
sacrifice that my son has made to you. You have heard how he cries to you
for help. Hear his prayer." Then at the foot of the pole he scraped a
little hole in the earth and placed the bits of skin there, and covered
them up. Then he gave me to drink from a buffalo paunch waterskin that he
had brought.
"Now, my son," said he, "you shall sleep here this night, and to-morrow
morning, as the sun rises, leave this; hill, and everything on it, as it
is, and return to the camp. It may be that during the night something will
come to you, to tell you a thing. If you are spoken to in your sleep,
remember carefully what is said to you."
After he had gone I lay down, covering myself with my robe, and was soon
asleep, for I was very tired. That night, while I slept, I dreamed that a
wolf came to me, and spoke, saying: "My son, the spirits to whom you have
cried all day long have heard your prayers, and have sent me to tell you
that your cryings have not been in vain. Take courage, therefore, for you
shall be fortunate so long as these wars last. You shall strike your
enemies; your name shall be called through the camp, and all your relations
will be glad.
"Look at me, and consider well my ways. Remember that of all the animals,
the wolves are the smartest. If they get hungry, they go out and kill a
buffalo; they know what is go
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