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



At nightfall, the same ceremony was repeated. Toward morning, the 

 best runner, Red Antelope by name, was selected to lead the buffalo 

 herd into the piskun and after proper songs and ceremonies for his suc- 

 cess, he went out in the direction of a large herd of buffalo which had 

 miraculously appeared on the prairie. He passed to the windward of the 

 herd and built a small fire, where the herd could get the scent of it. 

 Incense was burned as part of a ceremony for success and Red Antelope 

 easily led the herd within the lines of stone piles or wings of the piskun. 

 When the watchers saw the herd coming, they signalled the camp to 

 muzzle the dogs. This must always be done to prevent the dogs from 

 barking and frightening the buffalo away. 



At the same time the buffalo woman, who, as is customary with of- 

 ficiating priests remained within the ceremonial lodge and continued to 

 perform the buffalo ceremony, this time singing a song which was as 

 follows : "The leader of the buffalo herd will not turn. I am going to 

 eat him. They will all go over the cliff." 



Then the hunters began to spring up from behind the stone piles and 

 frighten the buffalo, who ran bewildered over the cliff, about one hun- 

 dred animals being killed. The buffalo woman continued to sing buffalo 

 songs while the meat was being butchered. Many men wanted at once 

 to eat the fat from the rump and many of the women wanted to eat the 

 kidneys and other choice bits of the meat, but before this was done, those 

 choice parts of each animal which are the due of the medicine man*° 

 who performs the buffalo ceremony during one of these drives and 

 to whose strong medicine the good luck in such a hunt is due, were 

 brought to the lodge and given to the woman who had been a menial 

 and a servant, but who had been favored by the buffalo spirit and had 

 been given the buffalo ceremony that she might save her people from 

 famine. 



This is why the buffalo bundle with its iniskim or buffalo stone, rest- 

 ing on the matted buffalo hair, its sacred red and black paints, its rattles, 

 and fire-tongs are always found in every painted lodge of the Blackfoot 

 people, for it was upon this buffalo bundle that the hunt largely depended 

 in olden times. 



*°The medicine man who made medicine to insure success to the buffalo 

 hunters, performed his ceremony in a painted lodg'e in the center of the camp 

 circle. He commenced about noon on the day before the hunt, and did not 

 cease until a messenger arrived and announced the end of the drive. The 

 medicine man was entitled to receive the tongues and certain other very choice 

 parts of each animal killed. 



