WHY THE BUFFALO NO LONGER EAT PEOPLE. 43 
When your people have killed the Buffalo and have driven them far, 
then they will eat of the grass which Nesaru intended that they should 
eat.” The woman continued, and said: “Then your people will come 
out of the ground, and you will teach them the ceremony the Buffalo 
used to sing before they went out to kill you. Come, go with me into 
the timber. You must make many bows and arrows.” So they went 
into the timber, and the woman said: “Now you remain here. Do not 
be afraid, for the Buffalo are now going to sit and sing the songs, call- 
ing your people together where the tree is. Come, now go with me to 
where your people come out.” 
They went, and there stood an old hollow cottonwood tree. Near 
its base was a knot where there was a ‘hole. Lying by the tree was an 
ash stick, about six or seven feet long, and about eight inches in 
diameter. ‘‘Now,” said the woman, “do you see the stick? That stick 
is what makes the people come out of that hole. You shall use that 
stick, only do as I tell you, and you will be successful. Cut-Nose is 
the one who sits at the entrance, so when the Buffalo gather about the 
tree, he is the first to come out. He gets away. The Buffalo do not 
try to kill him, for he helps the Buffalo.” 
So the young man lay down in the timber, while the woman re- 
turned to the camp. When it was daylight he began to make bows 
and arrows. He made many. Every night the woman would come to 
visit him. She gave him buffalo meat. Thus the young man stayed 
in the timber and kept on making bows and arrows. Often the boy 
went into the village with the woman and listened to the singing of the 
Buffalo. The woman told the young man to hurry in making the bows, 
for it was nearly time for the ceremony to be over, then the Buffalo 
would march out where the tree stood. The young man now hurried 
to make the bows and arrows. For two days the ceremony was kept 
up, the singing continuing all night. The third day the boy had many 
bows and arrows completed. The woman came in the night and gave 
the boy long sinew strings for the bows. The boy put the strings upon 
the bows and now the weapons were completed. The woman took the 
boy into the camp, and there he heard singing. At the end of every 
tenth song the singing was stopped. Ina little while the singing would 
be resumed. Now the woman told the boy that the next morning 
they would have to return to the timber and bring the bows and arrows. 
The next morning they went and brought the bows and arrows and 
placed them at the foot of the tree, the bows already strung, and the 
arrows with the bows. “Now,” said the woman, “as soon as you see 
the Buffalo coming towards the tree, you run up to the tree three times, 
