th the construction of their
summer wigwams, which are made of the bark of trees, which must be
peeled off in the spring.

But every villager assembled to keep the feast. A certain quantity of
sugar was dealt out to each individual, and any one of them who could
not eat all that was given him was obliged to pay leggins, or a blanket,
or something valuable, to the medicine man. On this occasion, indeed on
most occasions, the Dahcotahs have no difficulty in disposing of any
quantity of food.

When the feast was over, however, the skill of their doctors was in
requisition; for almost all of them were made quite ill by excess, and
were seen at evening lying at full length on the ground, groaning and
writhing with pain.

CHAPTER III.

The day after the sugar feast, the Owl told his wife to get ready her
canoe, as he wanted to spear some fish. She would rather have staid at
home, as she was not fully recovered from her last night's
indisposition. But there was no hesitating when the war chief spoke; so
she placed her child upon her back, and seated herself in the stern of
the canoe, paddling gently along the shore where the fish usually lie.
Her husband stood in the bow of the canoe with a spear about six feet in
length. As he saw the fish lying in the water, he threw the spear into
them, still keeping hold of it.

When the war chief was tired, his wife would stop paddling, and nurse
her child while he smoked. If the Owl were loquaciously inclined, he
would point out to his wife the place where he shot a deer, or where he
killed the man who had threatened his life. Indeed, if you took his word
for it, there was not a foot of ground in the country which had not been
a scene of some exploit.

The woman believed them all; for, like a good wife, she shone by the
reflected light of her husband's fame.

When they returned home, she made her fire and put the fish to cook, and
towards evening many of the Indians were assembled in the wigwam of the
war-chief, and partook of the fish he had caught in the morning.

"Unk-ta-he," [Footnote: The God of the Waters] said one of the oldest
men in the tribe (and reverenced as a medicine man of extraordinary
powers), "Unk-ta-he is as powerful as the thunder-bird. Each wants to be
the greatest god of the Dahcotahs, and they have had many battles. My
father was a great medicine man; he was killed many years ago, and his
spirit wandered about the earth. The Thunder-bird wanted him,