MICHELSON. ] ORIGIN OF THE WHITE BUFFALO DANCE. 181 
Then it is said after they had feasted, ‘‘ Well, we must all dress up 
in our best. Now we shall have a chief. I shall even carry my 
sacred pack on my back. That we shall be happy, is the reason 
why we shall do this. The one of whom we think the most is the 
one we shall have for our chief. We shall not do this aimlessly,” he 
said to the people. They were very happy. Then it is said they 
dressed up in fine clothes. Men all over were wishing to be the chief. 
The men dressed up in their very finest as they desired to be named. 
Then they all gathered in the afternoon. “ Well, now we are to look 
at each other (to see) who will be the chief,” said the man. ‘‘Slowly,” 
he said. 
Some of them were looking closely at that man. ‘‘ Well, these old 
men are the ones who will be looked at first; they will sit together,” 
they were told. Behold as they went about they looked more and 
more like persons of advanced years. Some ordered water to be 
dipped for them. “All right,” they were told willingly. Then they 
were being looked at. Then one spoke out: “They are entirely too 
old men,” they were told. 
Then it is said the owner of the sacred pack spoke: ‘“‘ Now, who 
ever can step over this, my sacred pack, is the one whom we shall 
have for chief,” he said to them. “Verily, all of you try it,” he told 
them. Then it is said, “It will show who is known by the manitou, 
he is the one who will be able to step over,” he told them. 
Then it is said they began to try, but they could not step over. 
Pretty soon the son of the man who died tried it. He was able to 
step over. There was a great noise of people whooping, as they 
were glad that they had a chief. Then at once it is said he (the one 
blessed) gave a gens festival and a dance. That person (who was 
the new chief) gave a speech. “Oh, my grandfathers, my friends, 
who are worshipping, so be it, the manitou, so be it, they worship, 
so be it, by whom they were blessed. So be it, of one, so be it, gens, 
so be it, as many as belong to it, so be it, so many were blessed by 
him, so be it. That is just what will happen to me, so be it. And 
the lands across,” so be it, the side of whosoever has spoken meanly 
to you, so be it, shall continue to end with their desire unfulfilled. So 
be it, so be it, so be it, if he does not stop annoying you with his talk, so 
be it, so beit, heshall instead becursing his own town,so beit. So beit, 
that was what, so be it, he probably had been told, so be it, when he was 
spoken to, so be it, by the manitou, so be it, who is so called. And, 
so be it, this is another way, so be it, that I bless you, so be it. Lo, 
the person who walks about in lonely places, so be it, succeeds in 
69 So beit’’ is a rendition of the mystic word nddici*: see Jones’s Fox Texts, p. 336, footnote 1. 
70 That is, another set of Indians. The word is archaic. 
