The Bison 129 



went very close to her. They did not appear to 

 fear her, but they did not crowd close about her ; 

 they gave her plenty of room, as if they respected 

 her. This led the Cheyennes to think that the 

 white buffalo was a chief among other buffalo. 



The women of the Cheyennes did not dress a 

 white buffalo's hide. When occasion arose for 

 such work, it was commonly done by some captive 

 woman ; for example, a Kiowa, or a Pawnee, — 

 some one who was not bound by Cheyenne cus- 

 toms and Cheyenne fears. Rarely, a Cheyenne 

 woman went through a certain ceremony, being 

 prayed over by a medicine-man, and painted in 

 a peculiar fashion ; this ceremony removed the 

 tabu, and she might then dress the white robe. 



The habits of the buffalo were in most respects 

 those of domestic cattle. They fed in loose herds 

 as cattle do, the members of a family — that is 

 to say, the old cow and her progeny, sometimes 

 up to three or four years old — keeping together ; 

 the old bulls, lazier, heavier, and less active than 

 the cows and the younger stock, were usually 

 on the outskirts of the herd, and if it was slowly 

 moving in any direction, were likely to be behind. 

 Much has been written concerning the intelligence 

 of the buffalo, and the manner in which the bulls 



