sed through
his body. His bow and arrow dropped from his hands, and he fell
forward, dead. Now, too late, the warriors came rushing out from the
Piegan camp to help him, but the Snakes scalped their enemy,
scattered up the mountain, and soon were hidden in the timber.

Fox Eye had two wives, and their father and mother and all their
near relations were dead. All Fox Eye's relations had died. So it
happened that these poor widows had no one to help them--no one to
take vengeance for the killing of their husband.

All day long, and often far into the night, these two sat on a
near-by hill and wailed, and their mourning was sad.

There was a young man named Mika'pi. Every morning when he awoke
he heard the mourning of these poor widows, and all through the day
he could not forget their sorrow. He pitied them. One day he sent
his mother to them, to tell them that he wished to speak with them.
When they had come to the lodge they entered and sat down close by
the doorway and covered their heads.

"Listen!" said Mika'pi. "For days and nights I have heard your
mourning, and I too have mourned. Your husband was my close friend,
and now he is dead, and no relations are left to avenge him. So now
I say to you, I will take the load from your hearts; I will go to
war and kill enemies and take scalps, and when I return they shall
be yours. I will wipe away your tears, and we shall be glad that Fox
Eye is avenged."

When the people heard that Mika'pi was going to war many young
men wished to join him, but he refused. "I shall go alone," he said.
So when he had taken a medicine sweat and had asked a priest to pray
for him in his absence, he left the camp one evening, just as it was
growing dark.

It is only the foolish warrior who travels in the day. The wise one
knows that war-parties may be out, or that some camp watcher sitting
on a hill may see him far off and may try to kill him. Mika'pi
was not one of these foolish persons. He was brave and cautious, and
he had powerful helpers. Some have said that he was helped by the
ghosts. When he started to war against the Snakes he travelled in
low places, and at sunrise he climbed some hill near by and looked
carefully over the country in all directions, and during all the
long day he lay there and watched, sleeping often, but only for a
short time.

When Mika'pi had come to the Great Place of Falling Water,[A] it
began to rain hard, and, looking about for a place to sleep, he s