ALONE AND WON THE NAME OF
THE LONE WARRIOR

There was once a young man whose parents were not overburdened with
the riches of this world, and consequently could not dress their
only son in as rich a costume as the other young men of the tribe,
and on account of not being so richly clad as they, he was
looked down upon and shunned by them. He was never invited to take
part in any of their sports; nor was he ever asked to join any of
the war parties.

In the village lived an old man with an only daughter. Like the
other family, they were poor, but the daughter was the belle of the
tribe. She was the most sought after by the young men of the
village, and warriors from tribes far distant came to press their
suit at winning her for their bride. All to no purpose; she had
the same answer for them as she had for the young men of the
village.

The poor young man was also very handsome despite his poor clothes,
but having never killed an enemy nor brought home any enemies'
horses he was not (according to Indian rules) allowed to make love
to any young or old woman. He tried in vain to join some of the
war parties, that he might get the chance to win his spurs as a
warrior. To all his pleadings, came the same answer: "You are not
fit to join a war party. You have no horses, and if you should get
killed our tribe would be laughed at and be made fun of as you have
such poor clothes, and we don't want the enemy to know that we have
any one of our tribe who dresses so poorly as you do."