The Blackfeet make daily prayers to the Sun and to Old Man, and nothing of importance is undertaken without asking for divine assistance.  They are firm believers in dreams.  These, they say, are sent by the Sun to enable us to look ahead, to tell what is going to happen.  A dream, especially if it is a strong one,—­that is, if the dream is very clear and vivid,—­is almost always obeyed.  As dreams start them on the war path, so, if a dream threatening bad luck comes to a member of a war party, even if in the enemy’s country and just about to make an attack on a camp, the party is likely to turn about and go home without making any hostile demonstrations.  The animal or object which appears to the boy, or man, who is trying to dream for power, is, as has been said, regarded thereafter as his secret helper, his medicine, and is usually called his dream (Nits-o’-kan).

The most important religious occasion of the year is the ceremony of the Medicine Lodge.  This is a sacrifice, which, among the Blackfeet, is offered invariably by women.  If a woman has a son or husband away at war, and is anxious about him, or if she has a dangerously sick child, she may make to the Sun a vow in the following words:—­

“Listen, Sun.  Pity me.  You have seen my life.  You know that I am pure.  I have never committed adultery with any man.  Now, therefore, I ask you to pity me.  I will build you a lodge.  Let my son survive.  Bring him back to health, so that I may build this lodge for you.”

The vow to build the Medicine Lodge is repeated in a loud voice, outside her lodge, so that all the people may hear it, and if any man can impeach the woman, he is obliged to speak out, in which case she could be punished according to the law.  The Medicine Lodge is always built in summer, at the season of the ripening of the sarvis berries, and if, before this time, the person for whom the vow is made dies, the woman is not obliged to fulfil her vow.  She is regarded with suspicion, and it is generally believed that she has been guilty of the crime she disavowed.  As this cannot be proved, however, she is not punished.

When the time approaches for the building of the lodge, a suitable locality is selected, and all the people move to it, putting up their lodges in a circle about it.  In the meantime, at least a hundred buffalo tongues have been collected, cut, and dried by the woman who may be called the Medicine Lodge woman.  No one but she is allowed to take part in this work.

Before the tongues are cut and dried, they are laid in a pile in the medicine woman’s lodge.  She then gives a feast to the old men, and one of them, noted for his honesty, and well liked by all, repeats a very long prayer, asking in substance that the coming Medicine Lodge may be acceptable to the Sun, and that he will look with favor on the people, and will give them good health, plenty of food, and success in war.  A hundred songs are then sung, each one different from the others.  The feast and singing of these songs lasts a day and a half.[Illustration:  MEDICINE LODGE]