So that was why he cherished the lance, and that was why he considered the loose eagle's feather to be a strong medicine from the Great Spirit.
But this was only Number Six, in the twelve recorded deeds of Four Bears.
His next-biggest deed was as follows, and it is bigger, according to white man's way of thinking. By that deed he won his knife.
Early one morning one hundred and fifty Cheyenne warriors attacked the Mandan town. They took a scalp and many horses before they rode away. The Mandans had been surprised; but Mahtotohpa rallied fifty warriors and pursued.
The fifty warriors led by Mahtotohpa pursued for a day and half a day. At noon they sighted the Cheyennes driving the stolen horses; but the Cheyennes were so numerous that the Mandan warriors lost their hearts and wished to turn back.
Not so, Mahtotohpa! He galloped forward alone; he planted his lance in the earth, to the full length of the blade; and making a circle around it with his horse he tore from his clothing a strip of red cloth and hung that to the lance shaft, for a banner.
"If you are cowards, you may go back to the women," he called to his men. "I stay here, where my lance is firm in the ground."
His men were ashamed, and hesitated. Now the Cheyennes had turned and were coming for battle. Their chief saw the planted lance of Mahtotohpa, and Mahtotohpa waiting beside it, and he galloped forward, alone, on his white horse.
"Who is it that has stuck down his lance, and defies the Cheyennes?" he shouted.
"I am Mahtotohpa."