urred between the Pi-kun'-i and
the Crees took place in 1886. In this skirmish, which followed an attempt
by the Crees to capture some Piegan horses, my friend,
Tail-feathers-coming-in-sight-over-the-Hill, killed and counted _coup_ on a
Cree whose scalp he afterward sent me, as an evidence of his prowess.

The Gros Ventres of the prairie, of Arapaho stock, known to the Blackfeet
as _At-sena,_ or Gut People, had been friends and allies of the Blackfeet
from the time they first came into the country, early in this century, up
to about the year 1862, when, according to Clark, peace was broken through
a mistake.[1] A war party of Snakes had gone to a Gros Ventres camp near
the Bear Paw Mountains and there killed two Gros Ventres and taken a white
pony, which they subsequently gave to a party of Piegans whom they met, and
with whom they made peace. The Gros Ventres afterward saw this horse in the
Piegan camp and supposed that the latter had killed their tribesman, and
this led to a long war. In the year 1867, the Piegans defeated the allied
Crows and Gros Ventres in a great battle near the Cypress Mountains, in
which about 450 of the enemy are said to have been killed.

[Footnote 1: Indian Sign Language, p. 70.]

An expression often used in these pages, and which is so familiar to one
who has lived much with Indians as to need no explanation, is the phrase to
count _coup_. Like many of the terms common in the Northwest, this one
comes down to us from the old French trappers and traders, and a _coup_ is,
of course, a blow. As commonly used, the expression is almost a direct
translation of the Indian phrase to strike the enemy, which is in ordinary
use among all tribes. This striking is the literal inflicting a blow on an
individual, and does not mean merely the attack on a body of enemies.

The most creditable act that an Indian can perform is to show that he is
brave, to prove, by some daring deed, his physical courage, his lack of
fear. In practice, this courage is shown by approaching near enough to an
enemy to strike or touch him with something that is held in the hand--to
come up within arm's length of him. To kill an enemy is praiseworthy, and
the act of scalping him may be so under certain circumstances, but neither
of these approaches in bravery the hitting or touching him with something
held in the hand. This is counting _coup_.

The man who does this shows himself without fear and is respected
accordingly. With c