The Winslow mail., 1900-07-12
THIS was Pipe Chiefs story, told as
we sat by the fire and smoked

y
we sat by the fire and smoked
through the long winter evening:
Many, many, years ago, when l
was a boy, there lived in the
village of Pawnee Loups a man
named Medicine Chief. He was lame
When Medicine Chief was young, he
had gone to visit the Rees and had
lived with them for long time. While
he was living in their village, the
Rees told him the story OF the Young
Dogs Society and Dance" and how
they had first learned about it, and
had come to practice it.
In those days when Rec wanted
eagle feathers to tie on his shield or
lance, or for war bonnet, or to tie in
his hair, he used to go out and catch
the eagles, and this was the way he did
it: On the top of the hill where the
eagles used to come, he dug pit in the
ground and then covered it over with a
roof of poles and scattered grass on
the poles so as to hide them. He put a
piece of meat on the poles, tieing it
down so that the eagles could not carry
it away, and then, stripping off his
clothes, went into the pit and waited
there without food or drink until the
eagle came down to the bait. When
the eagle had alighted and was stand
ing by the bait, the man reached up be-
tween the poles, caught the bird by the
feet and drew it into the pit and killed
it. Sometimes the eagle would not
come for long time, and the man
would begin to think that he was not
going to catch any, and would be very
unhappy.
, A long time before Medicine Chief
had gone to the Rec village, a certain
Rec brave had gone out to catch eagles.
One night, while he was lying in the
pit, praying for good luck, he heard the
sound of drums beating a long way
off, but he could not tell from what di-
rection the noise came. He kept listen
ing and all night he heard the sound of
the drumming. The next night as he
Law there he heard the drumming be-
gin again, and he got out of the pit
and walked over the prairie trying to
follow the sound and learn where it
came from. He followed the sound till
at last, when it was nearly morning, he
came to the edge of great deep lake.
All day he stayed by this water, and
kept crying over his bad luck and pray
ing for help. When night came, the
drumming began again, and, after
time, he saw many birds and animals
in the water, and coming to the shore
and walking out on the land. He could
see ducks and geese. and dogs and
beavers and otters. These and many
other animals came out of the water.
For four days he stayed by this lake,
CRYING to Atius Tirawa (Spirit Fa-
ther) and praying to him for help, ard
at last on the fourth night he fell
asleep, for he was very tired and very
hungry, because he had had nothing
to eat for long time.
While he slept something must have
happened, for when he awoke he was
in large lodge in which there were
many people. Some of them were dan
cling and some were sitting about the
walls IN their robes. Some of the
robes were made of bear and buffalo
ana beaver anu WOll StAllS, OlhCA :
were of the skins of birds. Now, these
people who were in this lodge were
the animals that he had seen swim
ming in the water. They had changed
their shapes and had become persons.
Not long after this Rec man awoke
one of these people who sat at the
bank of the lodge-a chief-stood up
and spoke to him and said:
my friend, we know how un-
happy you feel and how long you
have been praying. We have lis
tened to your prayers, and we
have talked about you, and have
made up our minds that we will take
you in here and you shall be like one
of us, for we feel sorry for you. You
see all these people here in this lodge.
They stand for the different animals.
You see me; 1 am chief of these ami
mails, and 1 am dog. The Spirit Fa-
ther who lives away up in the sky likes
dogs. He has one Himself. like your
heart, and that is why I have taken
pity On you and want to help you. You