THE FIVE TURTLES AND THE BUFFALO DANCE. II5 
to the council and told what he had seen. The men were more afraid. 
From that time on, the man committed worse crimes than before, yet 
the people were afraid to make another attempt to kill him. The man’s 
relatives gathered with the woman’s relatives and they separated from 
the village, to return no more. They went in the night, and before 
morning they camped. Some young men and the famous one came to 
the village and killed a man and a woman. The people knew who it 
was and yet they did not dare to fight them. This was a separation 
where the people never meet again, which happened because the man 
did the bad deeds. 
35. THE FIVE TURTLES AND THE BUFFALO DANCE.* 
In olden times, while the people had their village upon the Missouri 
River, five soft-shell Turtles came out from the river and went into 
the village. The two on each side of the middle one received a bunch 
of eagle feathers on the head. They were placed with the fifth, which 
had black feathers. When this Turtle saw that its feathers were 
black, it was mad. It told the people that it was going away, and it 
marched back into the river. The people gave it smoke from their 
sacred pipes. The Turtle paid no attention to it, but went into the 
river, so there were but four left. These four Turtles were to remain 
with the people. | 
These Turtles died. The people made them into drums. Some 
years afterwards they changed these drums into rawhide drums, 
making them in imitation of the Turtle drums. They organized a 
dance known as the “Buffalo dance.” These Turtles were drums. 
They danced four days and four nights, and although this was a 
Buffalo dance, there was one mysterious being in the crowd who had 
a bunch of feathers of the magpie growing up all over his head. 
Pieces of skins of animals were strapped over his back, and he had 
a buffalo beard about his ankles, also about his waist. His face was 
painted with all colors. Sub eius inguinibus palus erat qui penem 
simulabat. Ex illo autem, dum saliebat et quasi equus acer huc et illuc 
currebat, palus semper pandebat. Ubicumque mulierem videbat, eam 
circumibat motusque dabat quasi cum ea concumberet. 
Now, in this village there was a young girl who was never per- 
mitted to be out of the lodge while this Buffalo dance was going on 
and this being was dancing around. The girl asked her parents to 
*Told by Yellow-Bear. 
