TIIE BUFFALO. 203 



tude might be attributed to the waning or failure of their 

 salacious disposition ; for some of them look as if they 

 entertained the sentiment, in a bovine form, that their only 

 books were the cow's looks, and folly was all they taught 

 them. I hope the spirit of Moore will pardon me for 

 thus transposing and applying his rollicking ditty ; but I 

 thought it so appropriate to the circumstances that I could 

 not help using it. These hermits are the specimens on 

 which the wolves delight to dance attendance ; yet they 

 take excellent care to avoid their horns unless they are 

 ill, or so decrepit as to be unable to make a strong resist- 

 ance. Even when in vigorous condition, they sometimes 

 yield their life to their gray foes, as the latter cut their 

 hamstring by a sudden bound, and, once that is severed, 

 they are soon transformed into wolf meat. 



Next to the lupine prowler, the Indian is the greatest 

 lover of the buffalo ; and no wonder, for to him it is house, 

 food, clothing, and fire. Its flesh furnishes him with food ; 

 its skin with wigwams, lariats, reins, robes, and raiment ; 

 its dung — the well-known bois de vache of the Canadian 

 voyageurs and half-breeds, and the " chips " of the plains- 

 men—with fire; and its bones often supply him with ar- 

 row-tips and other implements of the chase. 



The statement so frequently made that the red man and 

 the buffalo will disappear together is certainly true in a 

 particular sense ; for when the latter becomes so scarce as 

 not to be able to supply the wants of the former, he will 

 have to devote his attention to farming or stock-raising 

 to obtain a means of subsistence ; and as he cannot, or will 

 not, do either of these, he must become a pensioner of the 

 Government, and the result will be speedy starvation, or a 

 war in which he will be decimated. In that case we shall 

 know the typical Indian no more ; and instead of the fierce, 

 treacherous, and cruel brave, we shall have a sneaking, beg- 

 ging, poor wretch, who will, at an early day, be placed in 

 the soil where his rude forefathers sleep, and his race will 

 no longer be known on earth. The flesh of the buffalo has 

 been the principal, one might say the sole, food of many 



