18 TRUE STORIES OF THE HEAVENLY BEINGS. 
“At the last call the buffalo rushed out from the cave. The young 
man returned to the people and told them there were buffalo now on the 
prairie. The people went and killed many buffalo.”’ 
And so,as he concludes his story, he says: “‘We must perform the cere- 
mony correctly; so that when we go out upon the hunt we may find many 
buffalo.” 
Then he is seated. He takes the four water drums and gives each of 
the priests one. He selects three of the older men to stay with the priests, 
to whom he gives the gourd rattles, keeping the largest rattle for himself, 
to show that he is the leader of the ceremony. He tells the two soldiers 
to prepare their costume. Each puts on a bustle made of crow feathers 
and a coyote tail, and each wears a red headdress. Then they take up 
their long sticks. When the chief sees that the soldiers are ready he 
puts his mysterious headdress upon his head, then covers it with black. 
He then leads and the priests follow, carrying their drums and rattles 
with them. A mat has been spread outside the lodge. There they seat 
themselves, the chief sitting at the west, facing the east, with the men on 
either side of him. They are now ready to sing. The chief then orders 
one of the chiefs to call the people out, as the young man called the buffalo, 
making the peculiar noise four times. When the chief has finished call- 
ing, the two men with the pipes, who are standing at the entrance, lead 
the procession out. First after the priests come four young men, then 
four young women, four young men, and so on, and finally the soldiers, 
who dance with the sticks as they come out. The song that is sung at 
this time is about a child growing from childhood to manhood. The pro- 
cession comes out and goes around outside the singers four times, then 
stops dancing and sings another song. This song is about young men 
who can hunt buffalo and the enemy. When the song is completed they 
sing the song about calling the buffalo. Then they go around the sing- 
ers four times, then stop and sing the last song, which is about the bulls 
and old cows dropping out from the main herd on account of old age. 
Then they enter the lodge. The chief, still wearing his mysterious head- 
dress, takes one of the pipes, already filled with native tobacco, and 
smokes toward the east, then toward the south, then toward the west, 
then from the west to the fireplace, then from the fireplace to the west, 
then to the northeast. He then goes around by way of the north and 
lets one of the drummers smoke. He goes around the fireplace to the 
drummers by way of the south again and lets one of the drummers smoke. 
Then he goes to the singers and they all smoke. He takes the pipe, 
stands by the fireplace, facing the east, and empties the ashes from the 
pipe, then passes his hands over the pipe four times, above four times, 
