One of them, called Fox Eye, was a brave man, and shouted to the others to stop and wait, saying, “Let us fight these people; the Snakes are not brave; we can drive them back.” But the other Piegans would not listen to him; they made excuses, saying, “We have no shields; our war medicine is not here; there are many of them; why should we stop here to die?” They ran on to the camp, but Fox Eye would not run. Hiding behind a rock he prepared to fight, but as he was looking for some enemy to shoot at, holding his arrow on the string, a Snake had crept up on the bank above him; the Piegan heard the twang of the bowstring, and the long, fine arrow passed through his body. His bow and arrow dropped from his hands, and he fell forward, dead. Now, too late, the warriors came rushing out from the Piegan camp to help him, but the Snakes scalped their enemy, scattered up the mountain, and soon were hidden in the timber.
Fox Eye had two wives, and their father and mother and all their near relations were dead. All Fox Eye’s relations had died. So it happened that these poor widows had no one to help them—no one to take vengeance for the killing of their husband.
All day long, and often far into the night, these two sat on a near-by hill and wailed, and their mourning was sad.
There was a young man named Mika’pi. Every morning when he awoke he heard the mourning of these poor widows, and all through the day he could not forget their sorrow. He pitied them. One day he sent his mother to them, to tell them that he wished to speak with them. When they had come to the lodge they entered and sat down close by the doorway and covered their heads.
“Listen!” said Mika’pi. “For days and nights I have heard your mourning, and I too have mourned. Your husband was my close friend, and now he is dead, and no relations are left to avenge him. So now I say to you, I will take the load from your hearts; I will go to war and kill enemies and take scalps, and when I return they shall be yours. I will wipe away your tears, and we shall be glad that Fox Eye is avenged.”
When the people heard that Mika’pi was going to war many young men wished to join him, but he refused. “I shall go alone,” he said. So when he had taken a medicine sweat and had asked a priest to pray for him in his absence, he left the camp one evening, just as it was growing dark.
It is only the foolish warrior who travels in the day. The wise one knows that war-parties may be out, or that some camp watcher sitting on a hill may see him far off and may try to kill him. Mika’pi was not one of these foolish persons. He was brave and cautious, and he had powerful helpers. Some have said that he was helped by the ghosts. When he started to war against the Snakes he travelled in low places, and at sunrise he climbed some hill near by and looked carefully over the country in all directions, and during all the long day he lay there and watched, sleeping often, but only for a short time.