Boas] KUTENAI TALES 205 
(f) TREE CHIEF PROVIDES FOOD FOR THE PEOPLE 
At night, when Tree Chief slept, he knew | that the people in the 
town were starving. In the morning he said| to his wife: “Tell your 
father tolook at the fortune-telling place.’’ | Then shestarted. In the 
morning the woman said to her father: | ‘‘He says you shall look at 
yourfortune-telling place.’ Then || Golden Eagle looked at his fortune- 
telling place. He saw many | tracks of buffalo cows. He went out 
and shouted. Then | the youths said: ‘Make the buffalo fence 
strong.’ Then | the buffalo fence was madestrong. Tree Chief went 
along. | There was a large prairie. He began to pile up the manure 
of || buffaloes, much of the same kind. After he had piled it up, | he 
shouted at it. He said to it: “Hu, hu, hu, ya!’”’ Then | all the buffalo 
dung arose and became buffalo cows. | Then he rounded them up. 
Then he started. Just as soon as he arrived | at the buffalo fence, he 
saw many buffaloes coming. || The people told one another: “The buffa-: 
loesarecoming. Be careful! Don’t | let them disperse!’’ The buffaloes 
arrived. They did not disperse, and they all | went over the precipice. 
They were piled up. Many buffaloes filled up | the buffalo drive. 
Then all the people took them. | They said: “Take everything. 
Take even || the skin.” Then they were all taken up the hillside. | 
Tree Chief came up the hill. | He sat down, and all were taken. 
Chief Golden Eagle | had taken the fat of the buffaloes. He saw his 
son-in-law, | whodidnot godown. Heremainedsitting ontop. Then 
all the || fat buffaloes had been taken. (The chief) said to his daughter: 
“Tree Chief is tired. | Therefore he did not come down. Here is 
a fat cow. | Take it. It also has good hair. That shall be your 
blanket.”’ | When Tree Chief came back, one buffalo cow. came along 
behind the others. | It was old, thin, and full of sores. It also] 
slid down from above. It stopped up there. It was so old that 
it was not good to be eaten, | therefore it was not looked at. Tree 
Chief knew | what hisfather-in-law had said when he took | one fat cow. 
Then he went down. He went to | the lean buffalo, the sore one. 
He let it slide down. || His wife came, and he said to her: ‘Why did 
you take that | buffalo? There are many people. They ought to take 
what slides down. | Let us go and skinit!’’ She went and | skinned 
it. Then Coyote laughed | at them because they skinned one sore one. 
Coyote spoke, || andsaid to him: ‘‘Why do you dothat? That kind 
is not eaten. | Leave this cow lying there. Eagle has taken | a fat 
one with good hair on it for a blanket for your wife.”’ | They did not 
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