“My son,” he said to Scarface, “I will not forget what you have this day done for me.  Tell me now what I can do for you; what is your trouble?”

“Alas, alas!” replied Scarface, “Pity me.  I came here to ask you for that girl.  I want to marry her.  I asked her and she was glad, but she says that she belongs to you, and that you told her not to marry.”

“What you say is true,” replied the Sun.  “I have seen the days and all that she has done.  Now I give her to you.  She is yours.  I am glad that she has been wise, and I know that she has never done wrong.  The Sun takes care of good women; they shall live a long time, and so shall their husbands and children.

“Now, soon you will go home.  I wish to tell you something and you must be wise and listen.  I am the only chief; everything is mine; I made the earth, the mountains, the prairies, the rivers, and the forests; I made the people and all the animals.  This is why I say that I alone am chief.  I can never die.  It is true the winter makes me old and weak, but every summer I grow young again.

“What one of all the animals is the smartest?” the Sun went on.  “It is the raven, for he always finds food; he is never hungry.  Which one of all the animals is the most to be reverenced?  It is the buffalo; of all the animals I like him best.  He is for the people; he is your food and your shelter.  What part of his body is sacred?  It is the tongue; that belongs to me.  What else is sacred?  Berries.  They too are mine.  Come with me now and see the world.”

The Sun took Scarface to the edge of the sky and they looked down and saw the world.  It is flat and round, and all around the edge it goes straight down.  Then said the Sun, “If any man is sick or in danger his wife may promise to build me a lodge if he recovers.  If the woman is good, then I shall be pleased and help the man; but if she is not good, or if she lies, then I shall be angry.  You shall build the lodge like the world, round, with walls, but first you must build a sweat-lodge of one hundred sticks.  It shall be arched like the sky, and one-half of it shall be painted red for me, the other half you shall paint black for the night.”  He told Scarface all about making the Medicine Lodge, and when he had finished speaking, he rubbed some medicine on the young man’s face and the scar that had been there disappeared.  He gave him two raven feathers, saying:  “These are a sign for the girl that I give her to you.  They must always be worn by the husband of the woman who builds a Medicine Lodge.”

Now Scarface was ready to return home.  The Sun and Morning Star gave him many good presents; the Moon cried and kissed him and was sorry to see him go.  Then the Sun showed him the short trail.  It was the Wolf Road—­the Milky Way.  He followed it and soon reached the ground.

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