thout stopping, and when morning came they rested for a time and
ate more berries, and again the bear put mud upon the man's wounds.
In this way they travelled on, until, on the fourth day, they had
come close to the lodges of the Piegans and the people saw them
coming, and wondered.
"Get off now, my brother, get off," said the bear. "There is the
camp of your people. I shall leave you"; and at once he turned and
went off up the mountain.
All the people came out to meet Mika'pi, and they carried him to
his father's lodge. He untied the scalps from his belt and gave them
to the poor widows, saying, "These are the scalps of your enemies; I
wipe away your tears." Then every one rejoiced. All Mika'pi's
women relations went through the camp, shouting out his name and
singing songs about him, and all prepared to dance the dance of
triumph and rejoicing.
First came the widows. They carried the scalps tied on poles, and
their faces were painted black. Then came the medicine men, with
their medicine pipes unwrapped, and then the bands of the All
Friends dressed in their war costumes; then came the old men; and,
last of all, the women and children. They went all through the
village, stopping here and there to dance, and Mika'pi sat
outside the lodge and saw all the people dance by him. He forgot his
pain and was happy, and although he could not dance, he sung with
them.
Soon they made the medicine lodge, and first of all the warriors,
Mika'pi was chosen to cut the rawhide to bind the poles, and as
he cut the strips he related the coups he had counted. He told of
the enemies he had killed, and all the people shouted his name and
the drummers struck the drum. The father of those two sisters gave
them to him. He was glad to have such a son-in-law.
Long lived Mika'pi. Of all the great chiefs who have lived and
died he was the greatest. He did many other great things. It must be
true, as the old men have said, that he was helped by the ghosts,
for no one can do such things without help from those fearful and
terrible persons.
RED ROBE'S DREAM
Long, long ago, Red Robe and Talking Rock were young men in the
Blackfeet camp. In their childhood days and early youth their life
had been hard. Talking Rock was an orphan without a single relation
and Red Robe had only his old grandmother.
This old woman, by hard work and sacrifice, had managed to rear the
boys. She tanned robes for the hunters, made them moccasins w
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