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128
BULL CHIEF - ASPAROKE
Born 1825. Mountain Crow. Believing he could win success without fasting, he joined many war-parties, but always returned without honor. He therefore climbed Clouds Peak, the highest point in the Bighorn mountains, and there on the bare rocks he stood a day and a night. The mountain-rats ate holes in his robe and a fierce blizzard swept across the peak, so that they could not remain longer. Soon afterward the camp was moved, and he fasted four days and four nights in the southern part of Wolf mountains; no vision appeared. At this time all the men were possessed of an especial desire to count coups, and everybody was fasting. Bull Chief soon endured two more unsuccessful fasts, and then at the head of Redlodge creek, lance in hand and clad only in loin-cloth, moccasins, robe, and a piece of old lodge-cover, he fasted four days and four nights, much of the time in blinding snow. He saw his own lodge and a splendid horse standing in front of it. This vision was soon followed by the capture of a tethered bay, his first honor. Thenceforward he very frequently counted coup.