152 The Bison 



would start to run, when the men stationed at 

 the point of the circle toward which they were 

 directing their course would show themselves, 

 toss their robes in the air, and turn them in 

 another direction. Thus, whichever way they 

 ran, they found people standing before them, and 

 soon they began to run around in a circle within 

 the ring of men, and continued to do this until 

 they became exhausted. Little by little the men 

 drew closer together, making the circle smaller, 

 and soon the buffalo were running near enough 

 to them for them to be shot by their arrows. 



It did not always happen that the hunt was 

 successful. Sometimes in the pen a strong bull 

 might find a place where no one was standing, 

 and might leap over the barrier, or at least leap 

 on it, throwing his whole weight against it. Very 

 likely he would be followed by others, and per- 

 haps a number would succeed in surmounting 

 the wall ; or they might even break it down, and 

 then the whole herd would stream out of the pen 

 and be lost. Sometimes, too, in the surround, 

 especially if the herd of buffalo was large, it was 

 found impossible to turn them, and they would 

 break their way through the ring of men. In 

 like manner, when, as sometimes happened, the 



