BUFFALO. 295 



breed with selected native or Scotch cattle, and the 

 chief points aimed at were superiority of the flesh, coat, 

 and head. 



A white Buffalo was ver}- rare. A skin of this colour 

 was highly prized by the Indians, who would pay several 

 horses for it. 



The Buffalo was killed or captured in several ways 

 by the Indians, who sometimes pursued them on horse- 

 back, sometimes drove them into pounds, usually con- 

 structed in winter, at others clothed themselves in white 

 Wolf skins, and approaching the herd in this disguise, 

 picked out the best animals. In winter they glided over 

 the snow in pursuit of the Bison on snow-shoes, and 

 then killed their huge victims, who w'ere floundering 

 slowly through the drifts. The Buffalo was then every- 

 thing to the Indian^ out of his flesh he madepemmican 

 (pounded flesh, mixed with melted fat, and enclosed in 

 Buffalo-skin) ; out of the hide he made tent-coverings, 

 robes, etc. ; the bones were used for spoons and the 

 manure for fuel. The Buffalo Dance was one of the 

 characteristic dances of the Indians. They put on 

 Buffalo heads, and imitated very cleverly the movements 

 of that animal. This dance w^as continued day and 

 night, until the Buffalo appeared. Spreading a Buffalo- 

 robe on the ground was a sign of j^eace. 



Catlin, writing in 1866, in his " North American 

 Indians" (vol. i. p. 248), says : — 



"These animals are, truly speaking, gregarious, but 

 not migratory — they graze in immense and almost in- 

 credible numbers at times, and roam about and over 

 vast tracts of country, from East to West, and from 

 West to East, as often as from North to South ; which 

 has often been supposed they naturally and habitually 

 did to accommodate themselves to the temperature of 



