“‘Friends, let us now go home. Our father has given us the mighty magic dance. Let us go home and teach all our people, and dance the four days, so that the white man may go and the buffalo come back. All our fathers will come back. The old men will be made young. The blind will see again. We will all be happy once more.’
“This seemed good to them, and we all smoked the pipe and shook hands and took our separate trails. The Blackfeet went north, the People-that-click-with-their-tongues went west, and the Magpies, the Cut Throats, and the Snakes started together to the east. The Burnt Thighs kept on, while the Magpies and the Cut Throats turned to the northeast.
“At last we reached home, and I called a big dance, and at the dance I told the people what I had seen, and they were very glad. ‘Teach us the dance,’ they cried to me.
“‘Be patient,’ I said. ‘Wait till all the other people get home. When the grass is green and the moon is round, then we will dance, and all the red people will dance at the same time; then will the white man surely fade away, and the buffalo come up out of the earth where he is hid and roam the sod once more.’
“Then they did as I bid, and when the moon was round as a shield, we beat the drum and called the people to dance.
“Then the white man became much excited. He called for more soldiers everywhere to stop the dance, so I heard afterward. But the people paid no attention, for was not the white man poor and weak by the magic of the dance?
“Then we built five fires, one to each world direction and one in the center. We put on our best dress. We painted our faces and bodies in memory of our forefathers, who were mighty warriors and hunters. We carried bows and arrows and tomahawk and war clubs in memory of the days before the white man’s weapons. Our best singers knelt around the drum, and the women sat near to help them sing. When the drum began to beat, our hearts were very glad. There were Magpies and Cut Throats among us, but we were all friends. We danced between the fires, and as we danced the drummers sang the mystic song:
“Father, have pity on us.
We are crying for thirst—
All is gone!