290 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. II. 



woman, but lived with the buffalo woman, who said: "I will live 

 with you only under the condition that you do not call me harsh names. 

 You may strike me." The man promised, and lived with her for some 

 time, but one day he was vexed at something she did, and he broke his 

 promise, and pronounced a forbidden word. She quickly transformed 

 herself into a buffalo cow and her child turned into a buffalo calf. 



The man tried to catch them. After many days of chasing them he 

 came upon .a big herd of buffalo, and as he was sitting on a hill looking 

 at them, a little buffalo calf came silently 110 to him and said : "Father, 

 my uncles are going to try you by placing all the calves of my age in a 

 circle facing the center, and you are to be in the center, and you are 

 to pick me out of the number. If you fail, my uncles are going to gore 

 you to death ; but I will give you a signal when you approach me by 

 twitching my left ear. They also want you to find my mother by pick- 

 ing her out of a circle. I will go and lick some white clay and will act 

 as though I were going to nurse, and will rub the white clay on her 

 left shoulder, so that you may know her when you come to her." 



The buffalo had a big dance, and then told the man if he were 

 unable to point out his wife and child they would gore him to death. 

 After forming the circles, of cows and calves, the man picked out his 

 wife and child, which angered the buffalo uncles of the child, and 

 they started to gore him to death. 



While the man was on his way trying to find his wife and child, 

 he met Old Man Coyote, who instructed him to place a long thin piece 

 of buffalo sinew and a breath feather of the eagle on the top of his 

 head, that it might revolve when dancing. 



When the buffalo went to gore him the feather rose in the air and 

 as his being was in the feather, there was no one in the center of the 

 circle ; they gored each other, breaking legs and shoulders ; and they 

 did this repeatedly, until at last they abandoned it, saying that his medi- 

 cine was stronger than theirs, and they let him have his wife and child 

 to take back to his camp. 



13. — Old Man Coyote and the Infant who was Adopted by the 



Buffalo. 



Long time ago there lived a chief with his wife and a very beautiful 

 daughter, whom all the young men of the tribe wanted to marry. But 

 the chief would not give his consent. 



One day it became known that the daughter was to become a 

 mother. Her parents decided to take her to a place where she could 



