*

It was a very hot day. All the lodge skins were raised and the
people sat in the shade. There was a chief, a very generous man,
who all day long was calling out for feasts, and people kept coming
to his lodge to eat and smoke with him. Early in the morning this
chief saw sitting on a butte near by a person close-wrapped in his
robe. All day long this person sat there and did not move. When it
was almost night the chief said, "That person has sat there all day
in the strong heat, and he has not eaten nor drunk. Perhaps he is a
stranger. Go and ask him to come to my lodge."

Some young men ran up to the person and said to him, "Why have you
sat here all day in the great heat? Come to the shade of the lodges.
The chief asks you to eat with him." The person rose and threw off
his robe and the young men were surprised. He wore fine clothing;
his bow, shield, and other weapons were of strange make; but they
knew his face, although the scar was gone, and they ran ahead,
shouting, "The Scarface poor young man has come. He is poor no
longer. The scar on his face is gone."

All the people hurried out to see him and to ask him questions.
"Where did you get all these fine things?" He did not answer. There
in the crowd stood that young woman, and, taking the two raven
feathers from his head, he gave them to her and said, "The trail was
long and I nearly died, but by those helpers I found his lodge. He
is glad. He sends these feathers to you. They are the sign."

Great was her gladness then. They were married and made the first
Medicine Lodge, as the Sun had said. The Sun was glad. He gave them
great age. They were never sick. When they were very old, one
morning their children called to them, "Awake, rise and eat." They
did not move.

In the night, together, in sleep, without pain, their shadows had
departed to the Sandhills.

THE BUFFALO-PAINTED LODGES

The old lodges of the Piegans were made of buffalo skin and were
painted with pictures of different kinds--birds, or animals, or
trees, or mountains. It is believed that in most cases the first
painter of any lodge was taught how he should paint it in a dream,
but this was not always the case.

Two of the most important lodges in the Blackfeet camp are known as
the [=I]n[)i]s'k[)i]m lodges. Both are painted with figures of
buffalo, one with black buffalo, and the other with yellow buffalo.
Certain of the Inis'kim are kept in these lodges and can be
kept in n