First came the widows.  Their faces were painted black, and they carried the scalps tied on poles.  Then came the medicine men, with their medicine pipes unwrapped; then the bands of the I-kun-uh’-kah-tsi, all dressed in war costume; then came the old men; and last the women and children.  They all sang the war song and danced.  They went all through the village in single file, stopping here and there to dance, and Mik-a’pi sat outside the lodge, and saw all the people dance by him.  He forgot his pain and was proud, and although he could not dance, he sang with them.

Soon they made the Medicine Lodge, and, first of all the warriors, Mik-a’pi was chosen to cut the raw-hide which binds the poles, and as he cut the strands, he counted the coups he had made.  He told of the enemies he had killed, and all the people shouted his name and praised him.  The father of those two young sisters gave them to him.  He was glad to have such a son-in-law.  Long lived Mik-a’pi.  Of all the great chiefs who have lived and died, he was the greatest.  He did many other great and daring things.  It must be true, as the old men have said, that he was helped by the ghosts, for no one can do such things without help from those fearful and unknown persons.

HEAVY COLLAR AND THE GHOST WOMAN

The Blood camp was on Old Man’s River, where Fort McLeod now stands.  A party of seven men started to war toward the Cypress Hills.  Heavy Collar was the leader.  They went around the Cypress Mountains, but found no enemies and started back toward their camp.  On their homeward way, Heavy Collar used to take the lead.  He would go out far ahead on the high hills, and look over the country, acting as scout for the party.  At length they came to the south branch of the Saskatchewan River, above Seven Persons’ Creek.  In those days there were many war parties about, and this party travelled concealed as much as possible in the coulees and low places.

As they were following up the river, they saw at a distance three old bulls lying down close to a cut bank.  Heavy Collar left his party, and went out to kill one of these bulls, and when he had come close to them, he shot one and killed it right there.  He cut it up, and, as he was hungry, he went down into a ravine below him, to roast a piece of meat; for he had left his party a long way behind, and night was now coming on.  As he was roasting the meat, he thought,—­for he was very tired,—­“It is a pity I did not bring one of my young men with me.  He could go up on that hill and get some hair from that bull’s head, and I could wipe out my gun.”  While he sat there thinking this, and talking to himself, a bunch of this hair came over him through the air, and fell on the ground right in front of him.  When this happened, it frightened him a little; for he thought that perhaps some of his enemies were close by, and had thrown the bunch of hair at him.  After a little while,