For a long time my uncle said nothing, but sat there looking at the ground.  After he had thought, he raised his head and spoke to me, saying:  “Son, you can remember how it has been with us since you were a little boy.  You have been my son, and I have loved you.  I have been glad when you went to war, and glad when you returned with credit; yet I should not have mourned if you had been killed in battle, for that is the way a man ought to die.  I have seen your sufferings now for two years, and I know how you feel.  I think that it will be well for you to do as you have said, and for you to give your body to the enemy, and to be killed on the open prairie, where the birds and the beasts may feed on your flesh, and may scatter it over the plain.  Now, when you are ready to do this, tell me, so that I may see that you go to war as becomes a warrior who is about to die.”

It was not very long after this that a party of young men set out to war, all mounted, to go south to look for the Utes.  Among them was the one who had been my close friend, and to him I had told what was in my mind; and when I spoke to the leader of the party, he was glad to have me go with him, as were all of them.

I told my uncle, and he gave me his best war horse to ride, and gave me also a sacred headdress that he wore, which had in it some of the feathers of the thunder bird.  I took with me no arms, except a stone axe that my father had had from his father, and he from his father, and which had come down in our family through many generations.

The party started, and we traveled fast and far to the south.  At first I was very weak, and got very tired during the long marches, but after a time I grew stronger, and could eat better, and felt better; but my leg was as bad as ever.

We had been out many days and were still traveling south, east of the mountains, when, one day our scouts came upon the carcasses of buffalo that had been killed only a little time before, and the meat cut from the bones.  From this we knew that enemies were close by, and we went carefully.  Not far beyond these carcasses, as we rode up on a hill, we saw before us in the valley two persons butchering a buffalo, and as we watched them at their work, we could see that they were Utes—­enemies.  All the young men jumped on their horses, and we charged down on them.  Before we were near them they had seen us, and had run to their horses, and jumped on them and ridden away.  By this time I was far ahead of my friends, for my horse was the fastest of all; and soon I was getting close to these enemies.  They rode almost side by side, but one a little ahead of the other.

The one who was on the left and a little behind carried a bow and arrows, while the man on the right had a gun.  I said to myself:  “I will ride between these two persons, and the man with the bow will then have to shoot toward his right hand, and will very likely miss me, while I may be able to knock him off his horse with my axe.”  I was not afraid, for I had made up my mind to die.