At the time of the Medicine Lodge, the boys in the camp also gathered to see the young men count their coups.  A man would get up, holding in one hand a bundle of small sticks, and, taking one stick from the bundle, he would recount some brave deed, throwing away a stick as he completed the narrative of each coup, until the sticks were all gone, when he sat down, and another man stood up to begin his recital.  As the boys saw and heard all this, and saw how respected those men were who had done the most and bravest things, they said to themselves, “That man was once a boy like us, and we, if we have strong hearts, may do as much as he has done.”  So even the very small boys used often to steal off from the camp, and follow war parties.  Often they went without the knowledge of their parents, and poorly provided, without food or extra moccasins.  They would get to the enemy’s camp, watch the ways of the young men, and so learn about going to war, how to act when on the war trail so as to be successful.  Also they came to know the country.

The Blackfeet men often went off by themselves to fast and dream for power.  By no means every one did this, and, of those who attempted it, only a few endured to the end,—­that is, fasted the whole four days,—­and obtained the help sought.  The attempt was not usually made by young boys before they had gone on their first war journey.  It was often undertaken by men who were quite mature.  Those who underwent this suffering were obliged to abstain from food or drink for four days and four nights, resting for two nights on the right side, and for two nights on the left.  It was deemed essential that the place to which a man resorted for this purpose should be unfrequented, where few or no persons had walked; and it must also be a place that tried the nerve, where there was some danger.  Such situations were mountain peaks; or narrow ledges on cut cliffs, where a careless movement might cause a man to fall to his death on the rocks below; or islands in lakes, which could only be reached by means of a raft, and where there was danger that a person might be seized and carried off by the S[=u]’-y[=e] t[)u]p’-pi, or Under Water People; or places where the dead had been buried, and where there was much danger from ghosts.  Or a man might lie in a well-worn buffalo trail, where the animals were frequently passing, and so he might be trodden on by a travelling band of buffalo; or he might choose a locality where bears were abundant and dangerous.  Wherever he went, the man built himself a little lodge of brush, moss, and leaves, to keep off the rain; and, after making his prayers to the sun and singing his sacred songs, he crept into the hut and began his fast.  He was not allowed to take any covering with him, nor to roof over his shelter with skins.  He always had with him a pipe, and this lay by him, filled, so that, when the spirit, or dream, came, it could smoke.  They did not appeal to any special class of helpers, but prayed