BUFFALO GAMING STICKS. I05 
Night came and they could not see the bird, but in the morning it 
wasthere as before. They followed after it until all were tired out except 
the young man who had met the girl at the end of the game field. He 
continued to follow the bird until it led him to a ridge, where from the 
summit he could see a herd of buffalo approaching. He was tired and 
so he sat down and watched the thousands of buffalo approach. The 
young woman and her child, the buffalo calf, were among the herd of 
buffalo. The little calf was always crying for his father, for he heard 
the other buffalo calves cry for their fathers, and they came. One time 
he heard the bulls talking among themselves, saying, over and over, 
that his father must die, for they would not have him around. The boy’s 
mother also told him that the bulls would kill his father. 
The buffalo gathered around the young man, and the boy calf came 
up to him and told him that the buffalo bulls intended to kill him, but 
that he would save him. ‘‘The calves,’’ he said, ‘‘will be placed in a 
row and you will be told to find your son among them. When you come 
around to look in our faces I will wink; then you say, ‘This is my child,’ 
and then they will not kill you.’’ It happened as the boy said. The 
calves were arranged in a row and the bulls asked the young man to ex- 
amine them. He walked around them three times and looked up and 
down the line, until he saw one of the calves wink. Then he said, ‘‘This 
is my son,’’ and they did not kill him, but they put him to another test. 
They placed all the cows of the age of the calf’s mother in a row. The 
calf ran to his father and said,‘‘I will put a cockle burr on mother’s tail, 
and when you see it, say, ‘This is my wife,’ and then they will not kill 
you.’’ When the young man went to examine the cows up and down 
the line, he came to one with only one burr in her tail, and he chose her 
and said, ‘‘This is my wife.’’ The bulls said to him, ‘‘ You are all right; 
now you go home.’’ In a few days he arrived at their village. There he 
told his people: ‘‘In four days the buffalo will come in great numbers; 
we will kill them and have plenty of meat, and fat with which to grease 
the poles for our game.’’ Then they played the game and thanked 
Tirawa for the game and for the buffalo that he had given them. This 
was in the spring. 
