“Those are fine horses,” he said. “It is a great gift.”
Little Eagle was puzzled to see that Clawing Bear looked worried. It was odd that the medicine man should be worried at the time his pupil had returned with so great a victory.
“I owe you much,” Little Eagle told him. “I will owe you more when you have taught me more.”
A sudden smile warmed Clawing Bear’s face.
“I should have known that you are a real medicine man,” he exclaimed. “You are wise enough to know there is more to be learned.”
Abruptly Clawing Bear turned back into his tepee. A moment later he returned with a mask fashioned from the head of a buffalo hide. The two horns had been left on the hide. When it was worn, it looked as though the horns grew from the medicine man’s head.
“Turn your back to me,” Clawing Bear ordered.
Little Eagle obeyed. Slowly, Clawing Bear lowered the mask over Little Eagle’s head.
“Soaring Eagle,” Clawing Bear said solemnly. “You are now a member of the sacred clan of Sioux medicine men.”
Little Eagle gave a gasp of pleasure. Clawing Bear had given him a medicine-man name, Soaring Eagle. He had really been made a medicine man. He threw his head back and stood as straight as he could.