476 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



"grandfather." He figures iu the traditions of the Osage.' Gentes 

 and sub gentes are named after him. His image plays an important 

 part in the sun dance (§ 164:). 



§ 2.38. Miss Fletcher^ mentions a jirayer used during the White Buf- 

 falo Festival of the Huukpapa Dakota, m which are remembered the 

 "powers of the earth, wind, sun, water, and the buffalo." And in her 

 article on "The Shadow or Ghost Lodge; a Ceremony of the Ogallala 

 Sioux," she states that 2 yards of red cloth are (were) "lifted and 

 offered to the buffalo, with a prayer that good may (might) be granted 

 to the father" (i. e., of the dead child) "during the period of the lodge- 

 keeping." ^ 



§239. In her article on the "Elk Mystery of the Ogallala Sioux" ^ 

 is given an important note: 



Among the Sautees in jiast times, a man who should ilream of biiflalo must 

 announce it in the following manner : He t.akes the head of a buffalo he has killed, 

 carefully removes the skin, preserving it as nearly whole as possible, and throws 

 away the skull and the flesh. He then restores the skin to its natural shape and lets it 

 cure. When this has taken place, a few feet square of earth is set apart at the back of 

 the lodge, the sods cut off, and the exposed earth made fine. This is the "U-ina-ne." 

 Upon this earth a new blanket, formerly a robe, is spread. The blanket or robe must 

 not belong to a woman. The buffalo head is placed in the center of the blanket, and 

 one side of the head (is) painted blue, and the other (side) red. Upon the blue side, 

 tufts of white swan's down are tied to the hair of the head. Sometimes small eagle 

 feathers are substituted, and, verj- rarely. Large feathers. Upon the red side, tufts 

 of down-colored red are similarly tied. These decorations look like "a woman's 

 sunbonnet," as they cover the head and fall to the shoulders. The pipe is only filled 

 and presented to the head. The feast kettle is hung over the fire. When all is in 

 readiness, the man who prepared the head thus addresses it: "Grandfather! Vener- 

 able man! Your children have njade this feast for you. May the food thus taken 

 cause them to live, and bring them good fortune." An Indian of remarkable intel- 

 ligence, whose father before him liad been a priest of the higher class, explained 

 that in some religious festivals the buffalo and the earth were spoken of as one, .and 

 (were) so regarded. "Therefore if any one should revile or ridicule the bufi'alo, 

 ever so softly, the earth would hear and tell the buffalo, .and he would kill the man." 



Bushotter fui'nished two articles on the buffalo, translations of which 

 are appended. 



ORIGIN OF THE BUFFALO. 



^^240. The buft^alo originated under the earth. It is s.aid that in the olden times, am.an 

 who was journeying came to a hill where there were many holes in the ground. He 

 explored them, and when he had gone within one of them, he found plenty of butt'alo 

 chips, and buffalo tracks were on all sides; and here and there he found buffalo hair 

 which had come out when the animals rubbed against the walls. These animals were 

 the real buffalo, who dwelt underground, and some of them came up to this earth 

 and increased here to many herds. These bufi'alo h.ad many earth lodges, and there 



' Osage Traditions, in 6tb An. Kept. Bur. Ethn., pp. 379. 380. Am. Naturalist. February, 1884, pp. 113, 

 114, 133. Ibid, July, 1885, p. 671, Om. .Soc, in 3d An. Kept. Bur. Ethn., pp.'228, 233, 244. 247. 



^Kept. Peabody Mnseum,.vol.IU. p. 264. Xote bow in the Sundance the sun, the four winds, and 

 the buffalo are referred to (§^147, 164, 167, 173, and 181. aud 1*1. xlviii). and ceremonies are performed con- 

 nected with the e,irth,8uch as mellowing the earth (^5 146, 155, and 176) and the " Uudita, " in which 

 they shoot into the ground (^ 170). 



»0p. cit., p. 297. 



'Op. cit., p. 282. note. 



