"'Do you know who I am,'he asked me.
"'No,"person,"I do not know you.Who are you,and where is your country?'
"'If you will listen to me,boy,you shall be a great chief and your people shall love you.
If you do not listen,then I shall turn against you.My name is "Reason."'
"As the 'person'spoke this last,he struck the ground with a stick he carried,and the blow set the grass afire.I have always tried to know that 'person.'I think I know him wherever he may be,and in any camp.He has helped me all my life,and I shall never turn against him --never."That was the old chief's dream and now a word about the sweat-bath.A small lodge is made of willows,by bending them and sticking the ends in the ground.A completed sweat-lodge is shaped like an inverted bowl,and in the centre is a small hole in the ground.The lodge is covered with robes,bark,and dirt,or anything that will make it reasonably tight.
Then a fire is built outside and near the sweat-lodge in which stones are heated.When the stones are ready,the bather crawls inside the sweat-lodge,and an assistant rolls the hot stones from the fire,and into the lodge.They are then rolled into the hole in the lodge and sprinkled with water.One cannot imagine a hotter vapor bath than this system produces,and when the bather has satisfied himself inside,he darts from the sweat-lodge into the river,winter or summer.This treatment killed thou-sands of Indians when the smallpox was brought to them from Saint Louis,in the early days.
That night in the lodge War Eagle told a queer yarn.I shall modify it somewhat,but in our own sacred history there is a similar tale,well known to all.He said:
"Once,a long time ago,two 'thunders'were travelling in the air.They came over a vil-lage of our people,and there stopped to look about.
"In this village there was one fine,painted lodge,and in it there was an old man,an aged woman,and a beautiful young woman with wonderful hair.Of course the 'thunders'could look through the lodge skin and see all that was inside.One of them said to the other:
'Let us marry that young woman,and never tell her about it.'
"'All right,'replied the other 'thunder.''Iam willing,for she is the finest young woman in all the village.She is good in her heart,and she is honest.'
"So they married her,without telling her about it,and she became the mother of twin boys.When these boys were born,they sat up and told their mother and the other people that they were not people,but were 'thunders,'and that they would grow up quickly.
"'When we shall have been on earth a while,we shall marry,and stay until we each have four sons of our own,then we shall go away and again become "thunders,"'they said.
"It all came to pass,just as they said it would.
When they had married good women and each had four sons,they told the people one day that it was time for them to go away for-ever.
"There was much sorrow among the people,for the twins were good men and taught many good things which we have never forgotten,but everybody knew it had to be as they said.
While they lived with us,these twins could heal the sick and tell just what was going to happen on earth.
"One day at noon the twins dressed them-selves in their finest clothes and went out to a park in the forest.All the people followed them and saw them lie down on the ground in the park.The people stayed in the timber that grew about the edge of the park,and watched them until clouds and mists gathered about and hid them from view.
"It thundered loudly and the winds blew;trees fell down;and when the mists and clouds cleared away,they were gone--gone forever.
But the people have never forgotten them,and my grandfather,who is in the ground near Rocker,was a descendant from one of the sons of the 'thunders.'Ho!"
