Late in the night the people gathered near the "skunk," called together by
the sound of the singing and the drumming. Leaning on a stick, I walked
down there, and before long the "skunk" was lighted, and the members of our
war party and the young women began to dance. Although I could not dance,
my face was painted black like those of other men of the war party, and I
sat there and watched the young people dance and saw the old men and women
carry about the scalps. That was one of the last of the old-fashioned war
dances that I ever saw held.

The days went by, and before the birds had flown over on their way to the
south, and the weather became cold, I could walk pretty well, and could
ride easily. One day about this time a doctor whom I had given many
presents a year or two before to cure my sickness came to my lodge and
asked me if I did not think I ought to give him a present because he had
cured me of the swollen knee that I had had so long. I said to him that I
believed that not he but the Great Power, to whom I had prayed and to whom
I had offered my body as a sacrifice, had cured me. The doctor said that
this was a mistake; that really he had cured me, but that his power had not
had time to work until after I had started on my warpath.

I did not think that this was true, but I remembered that this man
possessed mysterious power, and I felt that perhaps it would not be wise to
refuse what he asked. I told him I must have time to think about this, and
that in seven days he should return and I would talk further with him about
it. Not long after this I told my uncle what the doctor had said. At first
he was angry and said that I would do well to refuse what had been asked of
me, but after we had talked about it, he came to think as I thought, that
perhaps it would be better to make the doctor a present, rather than to
have his ill will, for it was possible that he might be able to harm us. My
uncle, therefore, told me to give the doctor a certain horse, and a day or