Before he started the chief of the camp sent for him to come to his lodge, saying that he wished to speak with him. When Shield Quiver [[190]]had come to the lodge the chief said: “Here, my young man, now that you are going to war, take my daughter with you, for you are the man that ought to have her. But you will have to be on your guard against Bearhead. He wants my daughter, and for a long time has been trying to get her, but I cannot let him have her. He has a bad disposition. He has had many wives, but, after living with them for a short time, he has got angry with them and killed them. I am afraid that if I give him my daughter he might kill her.”
Shield Quiver thought for a little while, and then said: “Very well; I will go to war, and I will take your daughter with me, but if I go with a woman I cannot let men go with me. I shall have to go alone.”
The chief said: “I cannot say anything about that. You will do what you think best. I cannot advise you.”
So Shield Quiver took the chief’s daughter for his wife. He said to his followers: “Now I am going to war, but you men cannot come with me. I shall be gone two moons, and then I will come back. I am going alone.”
He started with his young wife, and they [[191]]went towards the Snake Country. They travelled for a good many days, until they came to a range of mountains and crossed it. Then they went on towards the head waters of a stream that they could see a long way off. When they reached this stream they found that the Snakes had been camped there, and had moved away that day. The fires were still burning in the camp.
When Shield Quiver found that the Snakes had only just moved from there, he said to his wife: “Here, let us get back in the brush. These people are not far from here. They may see us. We must hide ourselves.” They went back into the brush and hid.
While they were waiting in the brush a dark cloud came up in the west, and it looked as if they were going to have a storm. Shield Quiver said to his wife: “While we have to wait, I will fix up a little shelter of brush here, so that we may keep dry; but to-night we will go to the camp and take horses.”
“Very well,” said his wife, “while you are fixing the place, I will go around the point and into the old camp and will see if I can find anything there that has been left behind.” [[192]]For often something may be forgotten and left in the camp.
That day the Snakes had left this camp, and had moved over to another creek. The head chief of the Snakes had but one son, a fine-looking young man—the handsomest in all the Snake camp. That morning, before they moved, he had painted himself and had dressed himself finely, and after he had finished he handed his mother his sack of paints to pack. While his mother was packing, she put down the paints in a little patch of brush, near the lodge, and then went away and forgot them.
When the young man came into camp that evening he said to his mother, “Mother, where are my paints?” Then his mother remembered that she had left them in the camp they had just come from. She said, “Oh, my son, I forgot the sack, and left it in a little patch of brush just back of where the lodge stood.” The young man caught up a horse and went back to get it that same evening.