STORY OF THE PEACE PIPE

Two young men were out strolling one night talking of love affairs.
They passed around a hill and came to a little ravine or coulee.
Suddenly they saw coming up from the ravine a beautiful woman. She
was painted and her dress was of the very finest
material.

"What a beautiful girl!" said one of the young men. "Already I
love her. I will steal her and make her my wife."

"No," said the other. "Don't harm her. She may be holy."

The young woman approached and held out a pipe which she first
offered to the sky, then to the earth and then advanced, holding it
out in her extended hands.

"I know what you young men have been saying; one of you is good;
the other is wicked," she said.

She laid down the pipe on the ground and at once became a buffalo
cow. The cow pawed the ground, stuck her tail straight out behind
her and then lifted the pipe from the ground again in her hoofs;
immediately she became a young woman again.

"I am come to give you this gift," she said. "It is the peace
pipe. Hereafter all treaties and ceremonies shall be performed