Blackfoot Lodge Tales | Page 5

all ate some
of the food they carried, and then went to sleep.
Again the chief had a good dream, but the others all had bad dreams,
and some talked about turning back; but Owl Bear laughed at them, and
when night came, all started on. So they travelled for some nights, and
all kept dreaming bad except the chief. He always had good dreams.
One day after a sleep, a person again asked Owl Bear if he dreamed
good. "Yes," he replied. "I have again dreamed of good luck."
"We still dream bad," the person said, "and now some of us are going
to turn back. We will go no further, for bad luck is surely ahead." "Go
back! go back!" said Owl Bear. "I think you are cowards; I want no
cowards with me." They did not speak again. Many of them turned
around, and started north, toward home.
Two more days' travel. Owl Bear and his warriors went on, and then
another party turned back, for they still had bad dreams. All the men
now left with him were his relations. All the others had turned back.
They travelled on, and travelled on, always having bad dreams, until
they came close to the Elk River.[1] Then the oldest relation said,
"Come, my chief, let us all turn back. We still have bad dreams. We
cannot have good luck."
[Footnote 1: Yellowstone River.]
"No," replied Owl Bear, "I will not turn back."
Then they were going to seize him and tie his hands, for they had
talked of this before. They thought to tie him and make him go back
with them. Then the chief got very angry. He put an arrow on his bow,
and said: "Do not touch me. You are my relations; but if any of you try
to tie me, I will kill you. Now I am ashamed. My relations are cowards
and will turn back. I have told you I have always dreamed good, and
that we would have good luck. Now I don't care; I am covered with
shame. I am going now to the Snake camp and will give them my body.
I am ashamed. Go! go! and when you get home put on women's dresses.

You are no longer men."
They said no more. They turned back homeward, and the chief was all
alone. His heart was very sad as he travelled on, and he was much
ashamed, for his relations had left him.
II
Night was coming on. The sun had set and rain was beginning to fall.
Owl Bear looked around for some place where he could sleep dry.
Close by he saw a hole in the rocks. He got down on his hands and
knees and crept in. Here it was very dark. He could see nothing, so he
crept very slowly, feeling as he went. All at once his hand touched
something strange. He felt of it. It was a person's foot, and there was a
moccasin on it. He stopped, and sat still. Then he felt a little further.
Yes, it was a person's leg. He could feel the cowskin legging. Now he
did not know what to do. He thought perhaps it was a dead person; and
again, he thought it might be one of his relations, who had become
ashamed and turned back after him.
Pretty soon he put his hand on the leg again and felt along up. He
touched the person's belly. It was warm. He felt of the breast, and could
feel it rise and fall as the breath came and went; and the heart was
beating fast. Still the person did not move. Maybe he was afraid.
Perhaps he thought that was a ghost feeling of him.
Owl Bear now knew this person was not dead. He thought he would try
if he could learn who the man was, for he was not afraid. His heart was
sad. His people and his relations had left him, and he had made up his
mind to give his body to the Snakes. So he began and felt all over the
man,--of his face, hair, robe, leggings, belt, weapons; and by and by he
stopped feeling of him. He could not tell whether it was one of his
people or not.
Pretty soon the strange person sat up and felt all over Owl Bear; and
when he had finished, he took the Piegan's hand and opened it and held
it up, waving it from side to side, saying by signs, "Who are you?"
Owl Bear put his closed hand against the person's cheek and rubbed it;
he said in signs, "Piegan!" and then he asked the person who he was. A
finger was placed against his breast and moved across it zigzag. It