The Lordly Buffalo 273 



work which was then entirely new to them they 

 occupied themselves in hunting buffalo, killing dur 

 ing the winter sixty or seventy, some of them on 

 horseback, but mostly by still-hunting them on foot. 

 Once or twice the bulls when wounded turned to 

 bay; and a couple of them on one occasion charged 

 one of the men and forced him to take refuge upon 

 a steep isolated butte. At another time the three of 

 them wounded a cow so badly that she broke down 

 and would run no further, turning to bay in a small 

 clump of thick trees. As this would have been a 

 very bad place in which to skin the body, they 

 wished to get her out and tried to tease her into 

 charging; but she seemed too weak to make the 

 effort. Emboldened by her apathy one of the 

 men came up close behind her, while another was 

 standing facing her; and the former finally entered 

 the grove of trees and poked her with a long stick. 

 This waked her up most effectually, and instead of 

 turning on her assailant she went headlong at the 

 man in front. He leaped to one side just in time, 

 one of her horns grazing him, ripping away his 

 clothes and knocking him over ; as he lay she tried to 

 jump on him with her forefeet, but he rolled to one 

 side, and as she went past she kicked at him like a 

 vicious mule. The effort exhausted her, however, 

 and she fell before going a dozen yards further. 

 The man who was charged had rather a close shave ; 

 thanks to the rashness and contempt of the game s 

 prowess which they all felt for all three are very 

 quiet men and not afraid of anything. It is always 



