A venerable chief then arose and said:  “My white brother is a stranger to us.  He talks evil of us, and he talks evil of his own people.  He does this because he is ignorant.  He thinks my people, like his, are wicked.  Thus far he is wrong.  Who were they who killed the very good man of whom he tells us?  None of them were red men!  The red man will die for his friends—­he will not kill them!  Let my paleface brother talk to the white man.  His own people—­they are very bad.  He says he would do us good!  He does us no good to chide us and say we are bad.  True, we are bad—­and were we as bad as the palefaces, it would become us to listen to him.  Would my brother do us good?  Then let him tell us how to make powder and we will believe in the sincerity of his profession—­but let him not belie us by saying we are bad, like the palefaces!”

The Crows also have their legends of enchantment, as have other tribes.

Once upon a time a party of Crow Indians were out hunting the buffalo, and they had with them a blind man.  As he was a great hindrance to them, they put up a teepee on the bank of the Stinking Water for him, and told him to remain there until they returned.

They left him something to eat and built a fire for him.  Then they drove a stake in the ground and stretched a lariat to the Stinking Water so that he could drink, and they also stretched another lariat to the timber, and told him to follow that and he could get wood.  Thus they left him, and shortly after their departure another party of Crows came along, and they, too, had a blind man with them; so they concluded to follow the example of the first party, and leave him to keep the first blind man company.

The two blind men sat down and spent their time in telling stories; but the two hunting-parties were detained, and the two blind men ran out of provisions, and became very hungry.  They sat at their fire and wondered what they should do for something to eat.  Finally they could stand it no longer, and one of them suggested that they go down to the river and catch a fish to eat.

“No,” said the other; “Sak-a-war-te (the Great Spirit of the Crows) told our people to hunt the buffalo, and it would make him very angry for us to catch and eat fish”; but hunger getting the better of him, he consented.

They went down to the water, and it was not long before they caught a large fish.  They came back to their teepee, made a fire, and proceeded to cook their fish.  They were sitting on either side of the fire talking, and when the fish was done, Sak-a-war-te came quietly in and took the fish out of the pot over the fire.  Soon they discovered that their fish was gone, and then they began to accuse each other of having taken it.  From words they came to blows, and while they were fighting, Sak-a-war-te was standing there and laughing at them.  At last he spoke to them and told them to stop fighting—­that he, Sak-a-war-te, had taken the fish to try them.