In the night, together, in sleep, without pain, their shadows had departed to the Sandhills.
THE BUFFALO-PAINTED LODGES
The old lodges of the Piegans were made of buffalo skin and were painted with pictures of different kinds—birds, or animals, or trees, or mountains. It is believed that in most cases the first painter of any lodge was taught how he should paint it in a dream, but this was not always the case.
Two of the most important lodges in the Blackfeet camp are known as the Īnĭs´kĭm lodges. Both are painted with figures of buffalo, one with black buffalo, and the other with yellow buffalo. Certain of the Īnĭs´kĭm are kept in these lodges and can be kept in no others.
This story tells how these two lodges came to be made.
The painters were told what to do long, long ago, "in about the second generation after the first people."
In those days the old Piegans lived in the north, close to the Red Deer River. The camp moved, and the lodges were pitched on the river. One day two old men who were close friends had gone out from the camp to find some straight cherry shoots with which to make arrows. After they had gathered their shafts, they sat down on a high bank by the river and began to peel the bark from the shoots. The river was high. One of these men was named Weasel Heart and the other Fisher.
As they sat there, Weasel Heart chanced to look down into the water and saw something. He said to his comrade, "Friend, do you not see something down there where the water goes around?"