THE BUFFALO MEDICINE WAR SHIELD. 379 
village, who went to different sacred bundles, opened them, and took 
scalps and beads out of the bundles. The boy took these things back 
to the Buffalo camp, and gave the beads and the scalps to the Buffalo. 
The Buffalo were very proud of their presents and in return they gave 
the boy a small shield. The Buffalo said, ‘‘ You shall wear this shield 
in battle upon your left shoulder; never upon your right shoulder.”? The 
boy then took his wife and they went back to his people. 
Two days after they arrived in the village it was attacked by enemies. 
The man threw the shield over his left shoulder and went into battle. He 
was very brave, and killed so many people that the warriors talked much 
about his deeds. Again the village was attacked. The man again wore 
the shield over his left shoulder and rushed into the midst of the enemy, 
killing more than any other warrior. Again, for the third time, the 
village was attacked. The man threw the shield over his left shoulder 
and rushed out to fight, and he killed more men than he had before. 
The fourth time the enemy attacked their village. In the excitement 
the man forgot what he was doing and he took the shield from his left 
shoulder and placed it upon his right shoulder. In a little while he was 
wounded. He was taken to his tipi and left there to die. 
A Buffalo bull came in the night, stood at the entrance and made 
water, and then went off. In the morning the boy arose and went out, 
put his hands into the mud made by the bull’s water, and smeared it 
upon his face and nostrils. He went back into the lodge and lay down. 
Suddenly many Buffalo began to roll about in his lodge, but nobody could 
see them. There was a great dust in the lodge, but the people outside 
could see nothing but the dust flying out of the lodge. The boy rolled 
out of his bed and fell in the dust: The dust seemed to whirl around, 
and as there was much wind in the tipi the boy was thrown about, and 
after a while he was rolled out of the entrance. He lay outside in the 
dust for a while, then rolled back into the tipi, and when he rolled back he 
had turned intoa Buffalo. Again he went out of the tipi and rolled in the 
dust outside of the tipi. He went back into the tipi,and when he came 
out again the people saw that he was a man again and that he had a buffalo 
robe upon his shoulders. 
He was known as a wonderful man ever afterward. The Buffalo had 
taught him never to put buffalo horns or buffalo hoofs into his fire, for 
when he did he would die. This was a secret which he kept to himself, 
and did not tell anyone. One time, some one, through carelessness, threw 
a buffalo horn spoon into the fire and he died. 
