hose people,
without fear. Show them you are unarmed as soon as they see you. Now
go!'
"Out into the night went the Unlucky-one and on up the mountain. The
way was rough and the wind blew from the north, chilling his limbs and
stinging his face, but on he went toward the mountain-top, where the
storm-clouds sleep and the winter always stays. Drifts of snow were
piled all about, and the wind gathered it up and hurled it at the young
man as though it were angry at him. The clouds waked and gathered
around him, making the night darker and the world lonelier than before,
but on the very top of the mountain he stopped and tried to look
through the clouds. Then he heard strange singing all about him; but
for a long time there was no singer in sight. Finally the clouds
parted and he saw a great circle of ghost-people with large and ugly
heads. They were seated on the icy ground and on the drifts of snow
and on the rocks, singing a warlike song that made the heart of the
young-man stand still, in dread. In the centre of the circle there sat
a mighty Owl--their chief. Ho!--when the ghost-people saw the
Unlucky-one they rushed at him with many lances and would have killed
him but the Owl-chief cried, 'Stop!'
"The young-man folded his arms and said: 'I am unarmed--come and see
how a Blackfoot dies. I am not afraid of you.'
"'Ho!' said the Owl-chief, 'we kill no unarmed man. Sit down, my son,
and tell me what you want. Why do you come here? You must be in
trouble. You must smoke with me.'
"The Unlucky-one told the Owl-chief just what he had told the old woman
and the Beaver and the Coyote and OLD-man, and showed the stick that
the white Beaver had given him and the arrow that OLD-man had given to
him to prove it.
"'Good,' said the Owl-chief, 'I can help you, but first you must help
yourself. Take this bow. It is a medicine-bow; then you will have a
bow that will not break and an arrow that is good and straight. Now go
down this mountain until you come to a river. It will be dark when you
reach this river, but you will know the way. There will be a great
cottonwood-tree on the bank of the stream where you first come to the
water. At this tree, you must turn down the stream and keep on
travelling without rest, until you hear a splashing in the water near
you. When you hear the splashing, you must shoot this arrow at the
sound. Shoot quickly, for if you do not you can never have any good
luck. If yo
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