"Day after day came the people, eager to see the young chieftain and his squaw, who were to rule the people when the great Red Eagle was no longer able to rule. Songs to the sun began to rise from the great rock-ribbed mountains, and the royal family, with Red Arrow and the beautiful Aggretta, took their places on the great stone spokes of the wheel, facing the east. They began their worship by moving along until they came to the rim, when the men turned to the right and the squaws to the left, singing their chants to the sun. The sun chant begins very low, but as they go around the wheel it becomes louder and louder until the climax is reached, then a new company takes the wheel, and the first worshippers retire to their seats, watching and joining in the chants until the foothills and canyons and plains resound with the music.
"Thus the days and nights were passed until the end of their fourteen day holiday had come. The chief and his squaw had become acquainted with the leaders of the twenty-eight tribes, and after the annual worship was over and the customary gifts had been made to the young chief, Red Arrow, and his bride, each tribe, headed by the subchief went to their homes among the mountains."
CHAPTER VIII
CLOSING WORDS
One evening, when the old squaw seemed to be in a friendly mood, I made some inquiries as to where the several tribes had lived, and she said: "You white man want to know heap about Sheep Eaters. Why for you know so much?"
I told her I was very much interested in her people. Then I gave her a pretty bead necklace of regular crow beads, ornamented with paint. She put them on and a smile lighted the wrinkled old face.
"White man heap good," she said, patting the beads; then after admiring the beads for a time, she turned her attention to me. "White man find many camps of Sheep Eaters on Paint Rocks. Sheep Eaters make much squaw and papoose on rocks. On Great Mountain, white man find many tepees and sheep pens where Indian catch much sheep to eat. Many rivers away up in mountain, find much Indian work. Away up close to bad spirit country, you find many tepee, much rich plenty. (National Park.) Our people think bad spirits always at war in the earth, so our people scarcely ever went into that country, although our great men fetch obsidian from there to make arrows. Our men make arrows of the most beautiful design. We were called the arrow makers. We made the most beautiful fur garments and our tanned skins were the best."
"Tell me who you are, are you a chief's daughter?" I asked.
She turned her eyes away at the question, and sat for a long time with that vacant look on her face as though seeing all her past; then suddenly she turned, and looking squarely at me, she said, "Me Red Arrow's squaw."