In the beaver medicine lodge the men heard her and came running to her relief. She had the man down; he was struggling to rise; but the sun must have given her of his power: she held him firmly until they came, and they seized him, and White Antelope stabbed him to death. He was a Gros Ventre.
HOW MOUNTAIN CHIEF FOUND HIS HORSES
“Nephew, listen! Magic took place here in the long ago,” said Yellow Wolf as we sat around his lodge fire this evening.
“The Ah′-pai-tup-i[4] were hunting on this Cutbank stream, every day or two moving nearer and nearer to the mountains. At one of their camping-places some distance below here, Mountain Chief lost his two fast buffalo runners, and although all the young men of the camp scattered out to look for them, they could not be found. Camp was moved nearer to the mountains, and after a few days moved again, this time to this very place where we are now encamped.
[4] Ah′-pai-tup-i (Blood People). One of the twenty-four gentes of the Pi-kun′-i, or “Piegan” Blackfeet. [Back]
“The loss of the two buffalo runners was all that Mountain Chief could think about. As they could not be found, he felt sure that some enemy had stolen them.
“There was a Kootenai Indian visiting in camp, and one day he entered Mountain Chiefs lodge, and said to him: ‘You are grieving about the loss of your two fast horses. Now, if you will do as I say, perhaps I can find them for you.’
“‘Whatever you ask, that shall be done,’ Mountain Chief told him.
“‘First, then, you must give me a robe, a good bow, and a quiver of arrows,’ said the Kootenai.
“‘They are yours; there they are: my own weapons, that robe. Take them when you want them,’ said the chief.