hey were now great friends. Many Snakes had married Piegan women, and many
Piegans had married Snake women. At last all was ready. The great chiefs
mounted their horses and started out, and soon both parties were strung out
on the trail.

Some young men, however, stayed behind to gamble a while. It was yet early
in the morning, and by riding fast it would not take them long to catch up
with their camps. All day they kept playing; and sometimes the Piegans
would win, and sometimes the Snakes.

It was now almost sunset. "Let us have one horse race," they said, "and we
will stop." Each side had a good horse, and they ran their best; but they
came in so close together it could not be told who won. The Snakes claimed
that their horse won, and the Piegans would not allow it. So they got
angry and began to quarrel, and pretty soon they began to fight and to
shoot at each other, and some were killed.

Since that time the Snakes and Piegans have never been at peace.

THE LOST WOMAN

I

A long time ago the Blackfeet were camped on Backfat Creek. There was in
the camp a man who had but one wife, and he thought a great deal of her. He
never wanted to have two wives. As time passed they had a child, a little
girl. Along toward the end of the summer, this man's wife wanted to get
some berries, and she asked her husband to take her to a certain place
where berries grew, so that she could get some. The man said to his wife:
"At this time of the year, I do not like to go to that place to pick
berries. There are always Snake or Crow war parties travelling about
there." The woman wanted very much to go, and she coaxed her husband about
it a great deal; and at last he said he would go, and they started, and
many women followed them.

When they came to where the berries grew, the man said to his wife: "There
are the berries down in that ravine. You may go down there and pick them,
and I will go up on this hill and stand guard. If I see any one coming, I
will call out to you, and you must all get on your horses and run." So the
women went down to pick berries.

The man went up on the hill and sat down and looked over the country. After
a little time, he looked down into another ravine not far off, and saw that
it was full of horsemen coming. They started to gallop up towards him, and
he called out in a loud voice, "Run, run, the enemy is rushing on us." The
women started to run, and he jumped on his horse and followed them. The