200 TALES OF READY-TO-GIVE. 
something to eat. It was in this meeting that this ritual was recited. 
The old man said that once upon a time the Coyote people—that is, the 
coyotes, crows, rabbits, foxes, magpies, hawks, eagles, and other animals— 
went on a buffalo hunt; that these birds and animals selected a Hawk 
to look for the buffalo. The Hawk flew towards the west and went 
around to different places where it was known that the buffalo generally 
stayed. Every time the Hawk would climb a high hill he would see only 
the prairies and no buffalo. He finally circled around towards the south, 
and then east, coming to where the people were, and there the Hawk 
found many buffalo. There he stood surprised, for he had gone a long dis- 
tance in the country and could not find buffalo and here they were close 
to the people. 
Then the Hawk went into the lodge where the birds and animals were 
and sang this song: 
Now I climbed the hill and arrived at the top, 
There where the streams of water shorten people’s legs, 
Where once great herds of buffalo started from, 
Yet I saw nothing yonder but an expanse of land. 
Only the expanse of land, only the expanse of land. 
There where the elm trees are surrounded by hills. 
* ** * * X 
There where the hill stands in front of other hills. 
aa * “* * * 
There on the island hill where stand the cedar trees, 
* 7 a ” * 
There at the point of a grove of timber, 
“ * * * * 
There at the other end of the point of timber, 
* * * * * 
There at the place where one tree stands behind the timber, 
* * # * * 
There at the foot of the hills by the group of box elders, 
* * * * * 
There at the top of the hills where the skulls lie, 
* * * * * 
There where the mud covers the trails, 
* ox “ * * 
_ The next twenty verses of this song are like the first verse, except the second 
line, which only is here given. o 
