THE FOUR GODS IN THE WEST. 21 
of his journey, and that the gods in the west had sent him back with the 
buffalo. The people took their bows and arrows and in a day or so they 
saw the buffalo. The people were afraid of them, for this was the first 
time they had seen any buffalo. When they had killed some of them 
and tasted of the meat they thought it was very good. They offered the 
heart and tongue to the four gods in the west, as they had been told to do. 
This is why the three bands, Pitahauirat, Chaui, and Kitkehahki, 
instead of making any offering to Tirawa, make their first offering to the 
four deities who stand in the west. 
3. THE SMALL-ANTS BUNDLE AND THE BUFFALO.’ 
My grandfather told me that our people were put upon the earth a 
long time ago, when there were no seeds to plant or buffalo to hunt. 
They wandered from place to place and fed upon roots, berries, and pond 
lilies. After they had wandered for many years they reached the north 
country and there they found small game, which they killed and ate. 
While they were living in that distant and strange country, a young man 
told his father to speak to the chief of the people and tell them that they 
must go even farther north. The father listened to the words of the 
young man, for he knew that he was wise, and he knew that he spent many 
nights upon the top of a hill near the village in prayer. The father 
said, ‘‘My son, who told you that we must go farther north?”’ The boy 
answered his father and said: ‘‘Mother-Moon has told me to tell the 
people to continue their journey toward the north. She also told me 
that there were certain things that we must receive from Mother-Corn.”’ 
The father then went and told the chief what the boy said. The chief. 
was glad, and he told the people to continue their journey; that some 
young man had received word from above that the people should keep 
on their journey toward the north. The people were glad to hear this; 
but as they traveled on, roots and the things that they lived on became 
very scarce. The people began to complain. They called the chief 
names, and they wanted to know who the young man was who had told 
them to continue their journey. 
One time the young man went ahead and there waited for the people. 
As they passed by him he said that he was the one who had told the chief 
1Told by Red-Sun, a Chaui medicine-man who died in 1903 while on a visit to 
the Cheyenne. He was oneof Captain Pratt’s scouts. The tale has itsorigin from 
the altar known as the Small-Ant Altar, and was related during the intermission 
in the ceremony, if its telling was requested. The story teaches many things, and 
especially the origin of seeds and buffalo, which were obtained from Moon-Woman, 
who lived in a cave in the side of a hill, and it especially points out the folly of 
being careless in regard to food. 
