Hey-o-ha, hey-o-ha.’
“I danced, but I did not feel the ground. The star died; the sun blazed up; the drums and singing stopped. It was time to fulfill the vow I made when I saw the Crow village and all those horses from the hill. I had told Chagla about this, and now it was the time. He came to me and said, so that many could hear, and his words spread through the crowd:
“‘Eagle Voice, the people are asking, that you give them a day.’ And I answered: ‘I will give them a day.’ My tongue could not make the words clear, but Chagla said them so that all could understand: ‘Eagle Voice has said it. He will give a day to the people. Eagle Voice has said it.’ When they heard, the people cheered with one voice, ‘hi-ya!’
“The attendants began painting the dancers again after they had rubbed our bodies with the sacred sage. My body they painted red all over, except from the elbows and knees down, and that was blue for the power to make live and to destroy, as before. My body was red to make me holy, for through me a sacred gift would come to the people. From each wrist they hung an eagle feather, and one was tied in my hair, standing up. These were for the Great Mysterious One whose gift would come through me, and whose strength must be mine. When this was done, Blue Spotted Horse came and painted something on my back. It was a flying eagle, for the one that spoke to me with my father’s voice in my vision on the hill when I was a boy and Blue Spotted Horse prepared me for my quest. That is why I am Eagle Voice. So it was painted on my back.
“While this was being done, another holy man came with some sacred sage to where I had placed the bison skull. He was wearing a bison robe painted half yellow and half red. Into the eye sockets and the ear and nose holes of the skull he thrust the sage. Then he sang a bison song:
“‘A sacred nation, they are appearing.
They are appearing, may you behold!
The bison nation, they are appearing!
May you behold!’
“As he was singing the bison song, all at once the sage was blown out of the holes with great power, and a deep bellowing came forth. I do not know how this was, but I saw and heard; and I could feel the power growing in me, so that I felt strong as a bison and light as an eagle floating.