106 TRUE STORIES OF THE HEAVENLY BEINGS. 
27. THE BOY WHO CALLED THE BUFFALO AND WENT TO NORTH-WIND.* 
A long time ago, when the Kitkehahki lived upon the banks of the 
Republican River, they suffered from hunger one season. The crops 
failed, and they did not know what they were going to do for something 
to eat. The chief gave orders that they at once prepare to go west to 
hunt buffalo. The people began to hunt for their cache holes to get 
out their corn. They took everything out from their cache holes, and 
went west to hunt buffalo. They traveled for many days, but found no 
buffalo. At last they came to thickly timbered country, and there the 
chief told the people to make a permanent village; that they must live 
there. The people made earth-lodges for their village. 
From the village scouts were sent out to see if they could find any 
buffalo in the country. Toward evening the scouts came and reported 
that there were no buffalo in the country, not even their tracks could be 
seen upon the ground. The people became hungry; the children cried 
for something to eat. The scouts were ordered to go forth into the 
country, but every time they returned they reported that there were no 
buffalo in the country. The people became scared, for it was winter, 
and the snow was on the ground and they had very little toeat. Some 
of the people had nothing to eat. The chief sent for the crier and told 
him to tell the men that he wanted several men to go out and hunt buf- 
falo. The chief said, ‘‘Our people are now starving and you men must 
go out far into the country, even if you are gone several days.”’ 
Several men got together and said, ‘‘Let us go and be gone several 
days; it may be that we may find buffalo.”” Each man then asked his 
relatives to make moccasins for him. In one of the tipis there was a 
woman making moccasins. By the side of this woman sat a young boy. 
The boy was Coyote, and he played with the other children. The 
woman said: ‘“‘These men are going far into the country to find buffalo. 
We are all getting very thin and weak, for we have nothing to eat.”’ The 
boy sat looking at the woman as she made the moccasins. He lifted up 
his head and said: ‘‘Mother, make me moccasins. I want to go with 
the men and hunt buffalo.’”’ The mother began to make the moccasins. 
At the same time she doubted if the boy would go, for he was not yet a 
man; but when the moccasins were finished and the men ready to start 
1Told by Mouth-Waving-in-Water, Kitkehahki. Told both during bundle 
ceremonies and while upon buffalo hunts, that the participants might meet with 
the same good fortune as was encountered in the tale. The tale, like all those 
which have preceded it, is supposed to be true, or to record an event which really 
happened, and like many of the preceding tales it is a spur to young men to hope 
to achieve something great, and also to hold the implements of the buffalo game 
in a spirit of reverence. 
