Campfire Stories of Indian Character 495 



buffalo or the deer kind. The people talked about this, wonder- 

 ing who did it all. If the girl knew she gave no sign of it, 

 always passing the young man as if she did not know there was 

 such a person on earth. A few low and evil ones themselves 

 hinted wickedly that the imknown protector was well paid for 

 his troubles. But they were always rebuked, for the girl had 

 many friends who believed that she was all good. 



In the third summer of the girl's lone living, the Mandans 

 and Arickarees quarreled, and then trouble began, parties con- 

 stantly starting out to steal each other's horses, and to kill and 

 scalp all whom they could find himting or traveling about be- 

 yond protection of the villages. This was a very sad condition 

 for the people. The two tribes had long been friends; Mandan 

 men had married Arickaree women, and many Arickaree men 

 had Mandan wives. It was dreadful to see the scalps of per- 

 haps one's own relatives brought into camp. But what could 

 the women do? They had no voice in the councils, arid were 

 afraid to say what they thought. Not so No-Heart. Every 

 day she went about in the camp, talking loudly, so that the men 

 must hear, scolding them and their wickedness; pointing out 

 the truth, that by killing each other the two tribes woxild be- 

 come so weak that they would soon be unable to withstand their 

 common enemy, the Sioux. Yes, No-Heart would even walk 

 right up to a chief and scold him, and he would be obliged to 

 turn silently away, for he could not argue with a woman, nor 

 could he force this one to close her mouth; she was the ruler of 

 her own person. 



One night a large number of Arickarees succeeded in making 

 an opening in the village stockade and, passing through, they 

 began to lead out the horses. Some one soon discovered them, 

 however, and gave the alarm, and a big fight took place, the 

 Mandans driving the enemy out on the plain and down into 

 the timber below. Some men on both sides were killed; there 

 was both moiumng and rejoicing in the village. 



The Arickarees retreated to their village. Toward evening 

 No-Heart went down into the timber for fuel, and in a thick 

 clump of willows she found one of the enemy, a yoimg man 

 badly wounded. An arrow had pierced his groin, and the 

 loss of blood had been great. He was so weak that he could 

 scarcely speak or move. No-Heart stuck many willow twigs 

 in the ground about him, the more securely to conceal him. 



