“I have killed my enemy. I will burn his heart and give you the ashes, O Grandfathers!”
The crows heard this, for they had come back looking for their feast.
And the man burned the heart of his enemy and scattered the ashes, singing a brave song all the while. He had learned to do this from the Kansas; it is their custom.
Then the man got on the spotted pony and rode away, bearing with him the weapons of the man who stayed. And when he was gone the crows and the coyote came and made harsh noises at each other, for each was hungry, and there was a feast spread there upon the sand.
And it happened that evening, they say, that one rode into the Ponca camp and went to the tepee where Sun Eyes, the Omaha woman, waited for someone.
The man who came had his whole face hidden with a piece of buckskin, having eye and mouth holes in it. And Sun Eyes was cooking over a fire before her tepee.
“Ho, Mad Buffalo!” she said; “you have not found the bison. Why have you hidden your face?”
“I found no bison,” said the man, “but I saw something in the hills which caused me to hide my face.”
And Sun Eyes looked keenly at the man, for she thought it was some _wakunda_ he had seen.
“Why do you speak in a strange voice?” said she; and she trembled as she said it.
“He who has seen something is never the same again!” said he.
And while the woman wondered the two ate together. And as the man ate he laughed very pleasantly at times like a man who is very glad.
“Why do you laugh, Mad Buffalo?” said the woman.
“Because I was very hungry for something, and I have it now,” said the man.
And when he had ceased eating he sang glad songs, and again the woman questioned.
“I sing because of what I saw in the hills,” said he.
And this seemed very strange to the woman. But it is not allowed that one should question a man who has seen a _wakunda_.
And it happened that the man was pleased to speak evil words of Rain Walker, and Sun Eyes hung her head; her eyes were wet.
Then said the man, having seen: “Why do you act so? Do you want him? Behold! Am I not as good to see as Rain Walker?”
And he acted as one who is almost angry and a little sad. But the woman only sobbed a very little sob, for as the chief said in the council, a very wise man does not know the ways of a woman.