that you should treat me this way? Did I not always use
you well? I never struck you. I never made you work hard."

"What does he say?" asked the Snake man.

"He says," replied the woman, "that when you are done smoking, you must
knock the ashes and fire out of your pipe on his breast."

The Snake was not a bad-hearted man, but he thought now that this woman had
strong medicine, that she had Sun power; so he thought that everything must
be done as she said. When the man had finished smoking, he emptied the pipe
on the Piegan's breast, and the fire burned him badly.

Then the poor man cried again, not from the pain, but to think what a bad
heart this woman had. Again he spoke to her. "You cannot be a person," he
said. "I think you are some fearful animal, changed to look like a woman."

"What is he saying now?" asked the Snake.

"He wants some boiling water poured on his head," replied the woman.

"It shall be as he says," said the Snake; and he had his women heat some
water. When it was ready, one of them poured a little of it here and there
on the captive's head and shoulders. Wherever the hot water touched, the
hair came out and the skin peeled off. The pain was so bad that the Piegan
nearly fainted. When he revived, he said to his wife: "Pity me. I have
suffered enough. Let them kill me now. Let me hurry to join those who are
already travelling to the Sand Hills."

The woman turned to the Snake chief, and said, "The man says that he wants
you to give him to the Sun."

"It is good," said the Snake. "To-morrow we move camp. Before we leave
here, we will give him to the Sun."

There was an old woman in this camp who lived all alone, in a little lodge
of her own. She had some friends and relations, but she said she liked to
live by herself. She had heard that a Piegan had been captured, and went to
the lodge where he was. When she saw them pour the boiling water on him,
she cried and felt badly. This old woman had a very good heart. She went
home and lay down by her dog, and kept crying, she felt so sorry for this
poor man. Pretty soon she heard people shouting out the orders of the
chief. They said: "Listen! listen! To-morrow we move camp. Get ready now
and pack up everything. Before we go, the Piegan man will be given to the
Sun."

Then the old woman knew what to do. She tied a piece of buckskin around her
dog's mouth, so he could not bark, and then she took him way out in the
timber and tied him where he co