177 
of terns to their garments that they might endow their unborn sons 
with the skill of the tern in fishing, and some Indians on the plains 
carried curious natural stones^ shaped like miniature buffaloes to 
give them good luck and success in hunting. Their attitude here was 
not different from that of the European who carried a lucky coin in 
his pocket, or who stuck pins into an image of wax in order to create 
shooting pains in his enemy. 
Sarcee inedieine-]iipe bmidle resting oii a horse travois outside tlie owner’s tipi; tlie 
lioad-dress associated with tlie bundle is covered beneatli the blanket. (Photo hy 
I). -J enncHH.) 
In the opinion of most Indians guardian spirits could neither 
be inherited nor transferred; they protected only the individuals who 
had acquired them by prayer and fasting, and each generation had 
to repeat the quest anew. But the dwellers on the plains modified the 
doctrine. Without abolishing the usual quest they held that a man 
might purchase a vision and with it the blessing originally imparted 
by the supernatural world. In practice this led to the ritual buying 
and selling of visions and their symbols when they seemed to possess 
peculiar efficacy, and ultimately some of the plains’ tribes came to 
1 Frequently fossils. 
