"How shall we do? What shall we do?" exclaimed the Indian.
At last one of them, who goes by the name of the Bull or Buffaloe, (through the conjurer, for he alone could understand him, his voice being hoarse through, his uttering thick and inarticulate) asked the Indian if he remembered of a dream he made while yet a young man?
"Yes," replies the Indian, "I remember perfectly. I dreamed I saw one just like yourself who told me that, when advanced in life, I should be much troubled one winter. But by a certain sacrifice and a sweating bout I should be relieved. But I have not the means here. I have no stones."
"You are encamped upon them," rejoined the spirit, "and at the door of your tent are some."
"Yes, but," says the Indian, "the dogs have watered them, & they are otherwise soiled."
"Fool! Put them in the fire. Will not the fire heat and make them change color and purify them? Do this, fail not and be not uneasy. We shall go, four of us (spirits), and amuse him upon the road and endeavour to drive him back."
At this the interpreter burst out laughing, exclaimed, "Sacré bande de bêtes! And do you believe all that d——d nonsense?"
"You doubt too." says a voice addressing him (the interpreter) from the inside. "Go out of the tent and listen, you'll see if we lie."
He did indeed go out to some distance, and after a while heard [the spirits] as a distant hollow noise which increased 'till it became considerably more distinct, and then vanished as a great gust of wind, though the night was mild, calm, clear and beautifully serene. It even startled the dogs.
"Mahn!" (an Indian term or exclamation signifying haste) said the spirits from within.