ad.

It waved gracefully over him as he walked to his companions' camp,
and when he came there he threw down the head and sack and told his
friends how he had found them, and how the sack was full of paints and
feathers. The men all took the head and made sport of it. Many of the
young men took the paint and painted themselves with it; and one of
the band, taking the head by the hair, said--

"Look, you ugly thing, and see your paints on the faces of warriors."

The feathers were so beautiful that many of the young men placed them
on their heads, and they again subjected the head to all kinds of
indignity. They were, however, soon punished for their insulting
conduct, for all who had worn the feathers became sick and died. Then
the chief commanded the men to throw all the paints and feathers away.

"As for the head," he said, "we will keep that and take it home with
us; we will there see what we can do with it. We will try to make it
shut its eyes."

Meanwhile for several days the sister had been waiting for the
brothers to bring back the head; till at last, getting impatient, she
went in search of them. She found them lying within short distances of
one another, dead, and covered with wounds. Other bodies lay scattered
around. She searched for the head and sack, but they were nowhere to
be found, so she raised her voice and wept, and blackened her face.
Then she walked in different directions till she came to the place
whence the head had been taken, and there she found the bow and
arrows, which had been left behind. She searched further, hoping to
find her brother's head, and, when she came to a piece of rising
ground she found some of his paints and feathers. These she carefully
put by, hanging them to the branch of a tree.

At dusk she came to the first lodge of a large village. Here she used
a charm employed by Indians when they wish to meet with a kind
reception, and on applying to the old man and the woman who occupied
the lodge she was made welcome by them. She told them her errand, and
the old man, promising to help her, told her that the head was hung up
before the council fire, and that the chiefs and young men of the
village kept watch over it continually. The girl said she only desired
to see the head, and would be satisfied if she could only get to the
door of the lodge in which it was hung, for she knew she could not
take it by force.

"Come with me," said the old man, "I will take you there."