In Buffalo Days 
standing the fact that most of the skin was 
torn from his head and shoulders, appeared 
to be looking about for something else to 
fight. The Indian was very much afraid lest 
the bull should discover and kill him, and 
was greatly relieved when he finally left the 
bear and went off to join his band. This 
Blackfoot had never heard of Uncle Remus’s 
tales, but he imitated Brer Rabbit—laid low 
and said nothing. 
To the Indians the buffalo was the staff of 
life. It was their food, clothing, dwellings, 
tools. The needs of a savage people are not 
many, perhaps, but whatever the Indians of 
the plains had, that the buffalo gave them. 
It is not strange, then, that this animal was 
reverenced by most plains tribes, nor that it 
entered largely into their sacred ceremonies, 
and was in a sense worshiped by them. The 
Pawnees, in explaining their religious cus- 
toms, say, “Through the corn and the buffalo 
we worship the Father.” The Blackfeet ask, 
“What one of all the animals is most sacred?” 
and the reply given is, “The buffalo.” 
The robe was the Indian’s winter covering 
and his bed, while the skin, freed from the 
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