THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



145 



Feet, and Assiniboins. These pounds are called "parks," 

 and the Buffaloes are made to enter them in the follow- 

 ing manner: The park is sometimes round and some- 

 times square, this depending much on the ground where 

 it is put up; at the end of the park is what is called a 

 precipice of some fifteen feet or less, as may be found. It 

 is approached by a funnel-shaped passage, which like the 

 park itself is strongly built of logs, brushwood, and pick- 

 ets, and when all is ready a young man, very swift of 

 foot, starts at daylight covered over with a Buffalo nobe 

 and wearing a Buffalo head-dress. The moment he sees 

 the herd to be taken, he bellows like a young calf, and 

 makes his way slowly towards the contracted part of the 

 funnel, imitating the cry of the calf, at frequent intervals. 

 The Buffaloes advance after the decoy; about a dozen 

 mounted hunters are yelling and galloping behind them, 

 and along both flanks of the herd, forcing them by these 

 means to enter the mouth of the funnel. Women and 

 children are placed behind the fences of the funnel to 

 frighten the cattle, and as soon as the young man who 

 acts as decoy feels assured that the game is in a fair way 

 to follow to the bank or "precipice," he runs or leaps 

 down the bank, over the barricade, and either rests, or 

 joins in the fray. The poor Buffaloes, usually headed 

 by a large bull, proceed, leap down the bank in haste and 

 confusion, the Indians all yelling and pursuing till every 

 bull, cow, and calf is impounded. Although this is done 

 at all seasons, it is more general in October or November, 

 when the hides are good and salable. Now the warriors 

 are all assembled by the pen, calumets are lighted, and 

 the chief smokes to the Great Spirit, the four points of 

 the compass, and lastly to the Buffaloes. The pipe is 

 passed from mouth to mouth in succession, and as soon 

 as this ceremony is ended, the destruction commences. 

 Guns shoot, arrows fly in all directions, and the hunters 

 being on the outside of the enclosure, destroy the whole 



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