204 TALES OF READY-TO-GIVE. 
58. THE BUFFALO WIFE AND THE DISPERSION OF THE BUFFALO.* 
In a certain village there was a young man who disliked girls and 
women. This young man was really not a man, but a blackbird. The 
women tried to catch him in the night, but he was always on the lookout, 
and escaped them. The girls tried to catch him, but he would not have 
anything to do with them. There was another village to the west of the 
first village, but this was not a village of people, but of Buffalo. Every 
day the young man painted his face with black streaks and made black 
streaks upon his leggings. He took a spear and shield and a quiver of 
mountain-lion, and mounted his fine white horse and rode around the 
village. Some of the people from the west villages came and said that 
in that village there was a girl who disliked men. The young man 
heard of her and wanted to go and see her. The girl also heard that 
there was a young man in the lower village who disliked women and she 
wanted to see him. The girl told her parents that she would like to go 
to the village to see the young man. Her parents told her to go. She 
walked toward the lower village and at the same time the young man 
left his village and went to the west to see the girl. There was a high 
hill between the villages and the boy climbed up the east side. As he 
came to the top of the hill he saw the girl walking up the other side of 
the hill. ; 
When the young girl came up she spoke and said: ‘‘Where are you 
going?’’ The young man said: ‘‘I am going to the west to the other 
villages.” The girl spoke again and said: ‘‘I am going to the lower village 
to visit the young man who dislikes women.’’ She asked the young man 
where he was going. He said: ‘“‘I am going to the other village to see the 
young girl who dislikes men.”’ The girl dropped her head and answered, 
“T am that girl.’”” Then she asked, ‘‘ What is your name?” and he said, 
““My name is Streaks-of-Black-Paint-across-Face-and-Legs.” The girl 
said: ‘‘I dislike men, but I like you.”’ The boy said nothing and they 
separated, each going home. The girl told her people about the fine 
young man whom she had seen. The old Buffalo told her to go to the 
other village and bring the young man. The girl went back to the lower 
village and at dawn she stood on the little knoll at the north side and 
sang: 
1Told by Thief, Kitkehahki. The tale teaches that the performance of deeds 
such as those which it recounts may prove efficacious in drawing the buffalo near 
the village so that the people might kill them. It also explains how the blackbird, 
because it married a buffalo cow, is allowed to perch on the backs of the buffalo 
without attracting any notice from them. 
