68 STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



manage, uncle? Does he scrape through the bushes 

 the way a snake does to pull off its old skin ? " 



"You have judged rightly; the Buffalo has a hard 

 time with his coat, and only looks really respectable 

 a very small part of the year. During four months he 

 is well dressed, for the other eight he appears in 

 various stages of rags and tatters. In October he is 

 quite a gentleman, wearing a new suit of beautifully 

 shaded brown and buff which he manages to keep fresh 

 and bright until after Christmas. Soon after this the 

 effect of wear and tear, storm and snow, appear in a 

 general fading. You can easily see, however, that the 

 Buffalo with his winter coat, added to a thick hide, 

 could defy the weather even of the most open, wind- 

 swept country, and must be one of the hardiest of our 

 fourfoots. 



" All this tells you how the animal looked. Next 

 you must know why he was king of American four- 

 foots : it was because of his usefulness to the two- 

 footed Americans the Indians who lived with him 

 in wood, plain, and prairie, but chiefly in the open 

 plains. In the long ago every part of the Buffalo was 

 of service to the wild people who had never seen 

 a white face, a horse, or a gun. In fact, it is strange 

 that this shaggy brown monster of the plain was not 

 worshipped by the savages as a god ; for during the 

 last three hundred years of their liberty it was the 

 Buffalo chiefly that made it possible for them to live. 

 As long as the Indian had the Buffalo to supply his 

 needs, he was independent and unconquerable. 



" In the far back time, of which there is no written 

 history, man had no other instruments of killing than 



