When the young man saw him beckoning, he came running with all his might. “Ah!” he cried, as he came near, “you are cured.”
“No,” Pi-waṕ-ōk replied. “I am still as blind as ever.”
“Then how came you here? How could you climb that awful cliff and still be blind?”
“I do not know,” said Pi-waṕ-ōk. “I was asleep in the whitehead’s nest, and when I awoke I was here.”
The way home was easy, for they followed the rim of the valley to a point beyond the cliff, and then descended a sloping hill. And when they had arrived at camp the people came crowding around to hear all that had happened.
As the whitehead had said, Pi-waṕ-ōk became a great medicine man and healer of the sick, and, through the secret power that the bird gave him, he was able to do many strange things. He and his wife, Í-kai-si, lived to a great age. He was the greatest healer the Bloods have ever had. [[157]]
Ragged Head
[[159]]
Many years ago there was a Nez Percé Indian whose name was Ragged Head. He wore the long hair on the front of his head tied up in a bunch, and the ends hanging over were ragged and of different lengths. This was why they gave him this name. This man was a great warrior. He could not be killed. When he was a young man his dream helper had come to him in his sleep and had spoken to him, saying: