234 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



victory songs, he called the names of those who had struck the enemy and said 

 that they would be chiefs. He said to the young men when they stopped to camp 

 that evening, "About this time at the village the young women are out playing 

 games." 



They camped in the timber on the Yellowstone. They built two fires, one for 

 the leader and his assistants and the other for the younger men. They surrounded 

 the old men's fire with a fort made of logs. Guts was at the shelter set up for the 

 young men for it had begun to rain. The young men were sitting around the 

 fire with their robes over each other and their guns between them when someone 

 fired a shot into the camp. All the young men ran and jumped into the river 

 except Guts, whose finger was caught in his robe. While shaking loose of his 

 robe he aimed quickly towards a flash from a gun, calling to his friends, "I am 

 the only one who came to fight; you should come back and fight too." 



By that time the Old Wolves came running over to the young men's camp, 

 firing their guns, so the Cheyenne ran away. Guts found that the two who lay 

 next to him had been killed; there were three others dead near the fire; one was 

 missing and none knew what had happened to him. At last they found the body 

 of the missing man who had run in the wrong direction and had been caught and 

 mutilated by the Cheyenne. The dead man was Guts' "friend's" brother-in-law. 

 The "friend" wanted to take the body back to the place where the other five 

 were but he was afraid, so Guts carried the body while the other brought the gun 

 that the enemy had missed in the night. Guts did two honorable things: he 

 carried the dead man that the other should have since they were brothers-in-law; 

 he stopped to shoot at the enemy when the others ran away. They piled the six 

 bodies together and covered them with their robes and sticks. Then the party 

 started for home. 



They ran afoot all night toward home. The leader had been nicely dressed 

 before but in the night as they ran, the others did not know what he was doing 

 for in the morning they found that he had cut his hair all off; he had taken off 

 his leggings and moccasins and was running bare naked he was so sad; he had 

 cut himself in many places with his knife and had cut off the ends of two fingers. 

 The others begged him at least to wear moccasins but he refused, he was so sad. 

 The others begged him again as they ran along crying, and at last he consented 

 to put on moccasins and a shirt. 



They came to Hidatsa village on the Knife River but he refused to go into the 

 village. He was so sad because he had lost six men. So Big Bull stayed outside 

 fasting and crying, thinking that he would be paid back in the future. For a 

 year he would fast for a few days; then he would rest a few days before fasting 

 again. 



While he fasted he thought that he would go back in 1 year to see the young 

 men who had been killed. He thought that this time he would take along the 

 greatest medicine men of the five villages of Hidatsa and Mandan. He went 

 through the other four villages thinking of the different men he could ask until 

 he came to the south village of the Mandans where the highest war record was 

 held by Four Bears. 



When he came to that village he saw Four Bears sitting on his earth lodge. 

 Four Bears came down and they went into his lodge, for he saw that Big Bull 

 was carrying his medicine pipe. He set the pipe before Four Bears and, tapping 

 him on the head, said, "I am looking for my gods; I want to get even with the 

 Cheyenne who killed my six young men; I have thought of all of the great men 

 and my thoughts always come back to you. I have decided that you are the one 

 who can help me do it." 



Then Four Bears said, "What do you want to do?" 



