om Lodge, I went out into the
hills to suffer and to pray, to ask for help in my life, and that I might
be blessed in all my warpaths. Tom Lodge had told me what I must do, and
before the time came I had cut a pole, and brought it and a rope, and a
bundle of sinew, and some small wooden pins near to the place where we were
to go, and had hidden them in a ravine.

It was before the sun had risen that we started out, and when we came to
the hill where the things were, I carried them to the top of the hill, and
there Tom Lodge and I dug a hole in the soil with our knives, and planted
the pole, stamping the earth tightly about it, and then putting great
stones on the earth, so that the pole should be held firmly. Then Tom Lodge
tied the rope to the pole, and with sinew tied the pins to the rope, and
then holding the pins and his knife up to the sun, and to the sky, and then
placing them on the earth, he prayed to all the spirits of the air, and of
the earth, and of the waters, asking that this sacrifice that I was about
to make should be blessed, and that I should have help in all my
undertakings. Then he came and stood before me, and taking hold of the skin
of my breast on the right side, he pinched it up and passed his knife
through it, and then passed the pin through under the skin, and tied the
end to the rope with another strand of sinew. In the same way he did on the
left side of my breast. Then he told me that all through the day I should
walk about this pole, always on the side of the pole toward which the sun
was looking, and that I should throw myself back against the rope and
should try to tear the pins from my skin. Then, telling me to pray
constantly, to have a strong heart, and not to lose courage, he set out to
return to the village.

All through the long summer day I walked about the pole, praying to all the
spirits, and crying aloud to the sun and the earth, and all the animals and
birds to help me. Each time when I came to the end of the rope I threw
myself back against it, and pulled hard. The skin of my breast stretched
out as wide as your hand, but it would not tear, and at last all my chest
grew numb, so that it had no feeling in it; and yet, little by little, as I
threw my whole weight against the rope, the strips of skin stretched out
longer and longer. All day long I walked in this way. The sun blazed down
like fire. I had no food, and did not drink; for so I had been instructed.
Toward night my mou