At once the beaver began to fell some trees, and, as fast as he cut them into lengths, New Robe bound them together. In a little while there were enough to bear his weight, and he crossed to the other side in safety. Then, lifting the beaver up, it changed into the stick again, and, putting it safely in his bosom, he journeyed on.
One morning he came in sight of the camp, and sat down on a neighboring hill, prepared to do just as the old man had instructed him.
Pretty soon two or three young men approached, looking with wonder at the strange and beautiful robe he wore. When they had come near enough to hear his voice—for he kept his face covered—he told them to stand where they were, and asked them to go and tell the father of Raven Woman that he was New Robe, [[214]]returned from strange adventures, and with a powerful medicine. “Ask him,” he said, “to have four sweat lodges built for me, in a row from east to west, and when the stones are heated to let me know.”
The young men returned to the camp, and in a little while came back to say that all was ready. New Robe told them to walk ahead and warn the people to keep away from him, and, as they all stood in a big crowd on each side of his path, he came to the first sweat lodge and entered it. Sprinkling the water on the hot stones, he began the sacred songs that the old man beaver had taught him, and, as he sang, some of the fur with which his body had been gradually covered during the winter fell to the ground. Soon he left this sweat lodge and went into the next one, and the people crowded around the one he had left, looking with wonder at the little heap of shed fur. So he went into the four sweat lodges, one after the other.
When he came out of the fourth sweat lodge, New Robe had shed the last of his beaver fur, and was so changed that no one recognized him. He was a beautiful, clear-eyed, long-haired young man. He went straight to Raven [[215]]Woman, who was standing near, and took her hand. They were both so happy they could not speak. The girl’s father pointed to his lodge. “It is yours,” he said, “and everything it contains. Go and live happily, my children.”
New Robe became a great chief. By the aid of his medicine he was able not only to cure sickness, but he became a great warrior. No river or lake could stop his way, and he was able to kill many of the enemy who were encamped by the shores of any water, for, whenever he asked it of his medicine, it took him safely down under the surface of the water, wherever he wished to go. [[217]]
Little Friend Coyote
[[219]]
It was in the summer, when the Blackfoot and Piegan tribes were camped together, that the Blackfoot Front Wolf first noticed Su-yé-sai-pi, a Piegan girl, and liked her, and determined to make her his wife. She was young and handsome and of good family, and her parents were well-to-do, for her father was a leading warrior of his tribe. Front Wolf was himself a noted warrior, and had grown rich from his forays on the camps of the enemy, so when he asked for the young woman her parents were pleased—pleased to give their daughter to such a strong young man, and pleased to accept the thirty horses he sent them with the request.