an, also, was a dreamer. And in his dreams he was told, he
said, how to kill Wijunjon. The wizard must be shot with an iron pot
handle! Nothing else would do the work.

Accordingly, the young man appointed to kill Wijunjon for being bad
medicine, found an iron pot handle, and spent a whole day filing it
down to fit into the muzzle of his gun. Then from behind he shot the
terrible Pigeon's-egg Head and scattered his lying brains about, and
the wizard fell dead.

CHAPTER XX

THE BLACKFEET DEFY THE CROWS (1834)

"COME AND TAKE US"

Southwest from the Mandans there lived the Crow nation. They roved
through the Yellowstone River country of southern Montana to the Rocky
Mountains; and southward through the mountains into the Wind River and
Big Horn country of western Wyoming.

West from the Mandans there lived the Blackfeet nation. They roved
through the Missouri country of northern Montana, and north into Canada.

The land of the Crows and of the Blackfeet overlapped. The two peoples
were at war, on the plains and in the mountains.

By reason of their wars, the Crow nation had shrunk until they were
down to seven thousand people, with many more women than men. But
their warriors were tall and stately, their women industrious, their
garb elegant. Their buffalo-hide lodges and their buffalo-robe
clothing were the whitest, finest in the West. They had countless
horses. And the long hair of their men set them high in dignity.

Oiled every morning with bear's grease, the hair of a proud Crow
warrior swept the ground behind him. The hair of Chief Long-hair
measured ten feet, seven inches, and rolled into a bunch it weighed
several pounds. When it had turned white, he worshipped it as his
medicine.

The Crows' name for themselves was Ab-sa-ro-ke--Sparrow Hawk People.
They were of the Siouan family and cousins of the Minnetarees, the
Bird-woman's captors. They had no villages, except where they camped.
They were dark, as high and mighty in their bearing as the Mohawks or
Senecas, were wonderful riders and looked upon the white men not as
worthy enemies but as persons who should be plundered of horses and
goods.

In the white men's camps they were polite--and took away with them
whatever they could. However, many white traders spoke well of the
Crows.

The name of the Blackfeet was Sik-sik-a, which means the same. It
referred to their black moccasins. They were Algonquins, and in power
ranked w