532 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [eth. axn. 46 



and feeble are supplied by their relatives who have been to the hunt. 

 The chief has no interference in all these matters. He sometimes 

 hunts and works the same as the others, but generally sends some 

 of his sons or other relations with his horses for meat. They never 

 use the gun on horseback or the bow on foot after game. The 

 former they can not load while running and the latter is not calcu- 

 lated to shoot with certainty any distance over 10 paces. 



Throwing Buffalo in a Park. — This is the most ancient mode 

 of hunting, and probably the only successful one prior to the intro- 

 duction of firearms and horses, as their bows and arrows are insuffi- 

 cient for killing buffalo on foot. We know of no nation now except 

 the Assiniboin and Cree who practice it, because all the rest are well 

 supplied with horses that can catch the buffalo, therefore they are 

 not compelled to resort to these means to entrap them. 



Every year thousands of them are caught in this section by the 

 Assiniboin, and at the time we are writing there are three parks in 

 operation a short distance from this, all doing a good business. 

 When a camp of 30 to 60 lodges find themselves deficient in guns and 

 horses they move to a suitable place to build a park (pi. 69) , and there 

 wait the approach of buffalo toward it. Most streams have high 

 bluffs on each side and a valley between. They therefore pitch their 

 camp in the valley opposite and near a gap of perpendicular descent 

 through the hills; a high level plain being beyond the bluffs. They 

 cut timber and plant strong posts in the ground nearly in a circular 

 form and fill up the openings between with large logs, rocks, bushes, 

 and everything that will in any way add to its strength, inclosing 

 an area of nearly an acre of ground. This enclosure is run up the 

 sides of the hill to the gap or entrance C, though neither it nor the 

 camp is visible from the place beyond. The whole is planned and 

 managed by the master of the park, some divining man of known 

 repute, who is believed to have the power of making the buffalo 

 come into it by his enchantments. 



On the plains beyond, and commencing where the wood mark 

 leaves off, are thrown up piles of earth, about 3 feet high and 

 large enough to conceal a man lying behind them, which are about 18 

 paces apart and extend in angles to the distance of a quarter to half a 

 mile in proportion as there are people to man them. When these ar- 

 rangements are conqjleted, four fast running young men are selected 

 by the manager whose duty it is to scour the country every day or 

 two, making a circuit of about 20 miles in discovery of buffalo, and 

 report to headquarters. The master in the meantime commences his 

 magic arts as follows: A flagstaff or pole is planted in the center of 

 the park, to the top of which is attached a yard or two of scarlet cloth, 

 some tobacco, and a cow's horn. This is a sacrifice to the Wind. 



