"We all have our time to go, and when the Great Mystery calls us we must
answer as cheerfully as at the call of one of our own war-chiefs here
on earth. I am not sad for myself, but my heart is not willing that my
Winona (first-born daughter) should be called."

No one replied. Presently the last tom-tom was heard and the dancers
rallied once more. The man who had fallen did not join them, but turned
to the council lodge, where the wise old men were leisurely enjoying the
calumet. They beheld him enter with some surprise; but he threw himself
upon a buffalo robe, and resting his head upon his right hand, related
what had happened to him. Thereupon the aged men exclaimed as with one
voice: "It never fails!" After this, he spoke no more.

Meanwhile, we were hilariously engaged in our last dance, and when the
bear man finally retired, we gathered about the arbor to congratulate
the sick bear man. But, to our surprise, his companion did not re-enter
the den. "He is dead! Redhorn, the bear man, is dead!" We all rushed to
the spot. My poor friend, Redhorn, lay dead in the den.

At this instant there was another commotion in the camp. Everybody was
running toward the council lodge. A well-known medicine man was loudly
summoned thither. But, alas! the man who fell in the dance had suddenly
dropped dead.

To the people, another Indian superstition had been verified.

VIII. THE MAIDENS' FEAST

THERE were many peculiar customs among the Indians of an earlier period,
some of which tended to strengthen the character of the people and
preserve their purity. Perhaps the most unique of these was the annual
"feast of maidens." The casual observer would scarcely understand the
full force and meaning of this ceremony.

The last one that I ever witnessed was given at Fort Ellis, Manitoba,
about the year 1871. Upon the table land just back of the old trading
post and fully a thousand feet above the Assiniboine river, surrounded
by groves, there was a natural amphitheatre. At one end stood the old
fort where since 1830 the northern tribes had come to replenish their
powder horns and lead sacks and to dispose of their pelts.

In this spot there was a reunion of all the renegade Sioux on the one
hand and of the Assiniboines and Crees, the Canadian tribes, on the
other. They were friendly. The matter was not formally arranged, but it
was usual for all the tribes to meet here in the month of July.

The Hudson Bay Company always h