82 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE. [Vol. I. 



or a very tiny shell ( C) weighing but a frac ion of an ounce. These are 

 kept in the buffalo bundle as a rule, but smaller stones may be worn as 

 amulets, as is the case with (B). 



Each "painted lodge," that is, each tipi decorated with painted de- 

 signs of symbolic significance, has such a bundle and when the lodge 

 changes owners, the bundle and certain rattles and ornaments always 

 accompany it. 



The following is a version of the myth of origin of the iniskim : 



In olden times when a man married the eldest daughter in a family, 

 he had a right to have all her younger sisters as his wives. 



Now, it often happened that the youngest of them was made a serv- 

 ant to her elder sisters, or at least to the favorite wife. She was obliged 

 to bring wood and water, to do much of the work about the tipi, and in 

 every respect her position was a menial one. She was usually clothed in 

 the poorest fashion, her dress and her robe being frequently made from 

 pieces of worn out tipi cover. 



Once upon a time there was such a woman who lived in a famine- 

 stricken camp. She went out one day to gather wood. As she walked 

 along she heard someone singing : "Come here, woman, and get me." 

 When she stopped, the song ceased. She looked all about, but could 

 see no one. However, as she started to break up some wood, she heard 

 the voice again singing : "Woman, can you not come and take me, I 

 am powerful medicine, I am the greatest medicine of the buffalo." 



She followed the sound and presently came to a buft'alo wallow in 

 which she espied a piece of the matted hair, shed by the buffalo, upon 

 which rested a stone of peculiar shape. It was this stone which was 

 singing to her. She picked it up, placed it in the bosom of her dress and 

 took it home. 



The camp had been besieged by famine for so long that even many 

 of the strong warriors were almost completely exhausted and many of 

 the weaker members of the tribe had already succumbed. No buffalo 

 were to be seen anywhere. None had been seen for many days and the 

 camp was in a very critical condition. 



Upon her return to the camp, the woman told her husband to pre- 

 pare the lodge for a ceremony, and to make an altar, by placing a circle 

 of soft earth at the rear of the lodge before which were placed some buf- 

 falo chips and on these some wild sage. This finished, she told her hus- 

 band to go about through the camp and find a little l)uffalo tallow, for so 

 severe had been the famine, that nearly all of the buffalo tallow, even 

 that which was saved for ceremonial purposes, had been used as food. 



