“‘Mother, I have made a lot of trouble for you. In a fight with the Crows, I was surrounded and thought I was going to be killed; I made a vow to the Sun; I promised that if I came through alive, you would make a medicine lodge (Sun Dance). I know this means suffering for you—to starve yourself and become thin and weak.’ “But I was glad. Quickly I made my vow; I kept praying day and night: “‘Sun Above! Pity me! May I be pure and lead a straight life. May I be kind-hearted and good to every one. May my children and relatives live to be old.’ “Another time I was ill; the doctors said I was going to die. A messenger carried this news to my son Cross Guns who was camped on Badger Creek. It was midnight when he was told. He looked up to the sky and prayed: “‘Moon and Stars! Have pity on my mother. May she live! If she recovers from this night, I promise you she will give the Sun Dance.’ “Cross Guns generally prayed to the Sun. But that night he prayed to the Moon and Stars, because they were in the sky. Next day he came to my tepee and made known his vow. “We began our preparations in the early spring, before the snow was gone. We gathered tongues for the food and purchased a sacred headdress. I fasted and prayed day and night. On our way to the circle camp I had three travois, for the sacred tongues and my clothes.” Then the old woman changed from the subject of the Sun Dance and began to tell about her first experience with a Medicine Pipe. She said: “Many years ago our people had a big camp at the lower end of the Cypress Hills. It was midsummer. The four tribes, Bloods, Piegans, Sarcees and North Blackfoot, came together in the same camp. It was so large that our chiefs formed two great circles, instead of one as was our custom. My father, Black-Snake-Man, and Lone Chief were head men; Little Dog was war chief and Four Bears head medicine man. I was then a girl of fourteen; and in that camp I first learned about the Medicine Pipe. “One day White Calf had visitors at our tepee. He ran short of tobacco and asked me to borrow from his friend Four Bears, the medicine man. A large crowd was about his lodge, and inside many men dressed in fine costumes. I wondered what was going on; but I never thought it was a medicine-pipe ceremony. I stood at the door and asked Four Bears for the tobacco. At first he said he had none. Then I started to go away and he called me back. He left his seat at the back of the tepee and took some tobacco from a bundle hanging over the door. I saw him burn some incense and hold the tobacco in the smoke. He also made a prayer and said: “‘Here is tobacco. With it I give you the sacred bundle that hangs over the door. From it you can take tobacco whenever you want.’ “I felt proud of his having given such a fine present. I took the tobacco to White Calf and gave him the message. He looked at me strangely and said: