Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/518

 1 70 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

XIII.

It was spring, and the grass was green along the riverside, and all over the land. A buffalo bull was having a fine time eating the fresh grass, while a white man near by had a. hard time to make his living. Day after day he watched the bull and wished to be a buf- falo. So one day he approached him and stood near him, and cried, thinking that if he were a buffalo he would enjoy himself all his life, and all winter he would have a good robe on him, and he would not have to pay for his clothing and food. The buffalo looked at him and said to him : " What can I do for you ? " But the man continued to cry, and answered that he wanted to be a buffalo. The bull told him not to be afraid, and to stand at a little distance away. Then he charged at the man four times, and the man was not afraid of him, because he wished to become a buffalo. At the fourth charge the man turned into a buffalo, and then the bull taught him how to live. But at once the white man thought he could make money by teaching his friends to become buffalo. But a white man, whom he approached, ran away from him in fear.

In another version White-man is hunted after he has become a buffalo. He tries to tell the hunters that he is a man, but cannot, and is shot. 1

XIV.

Matceit (Little-man) was a poor orphan boy. An old woman took care of him, and they lived at a large camp. It was winter, snow- was on the ground, buffalo were scarce, and the people were nearly starved. One day Matceit told his grandmother to make him a bow and arrows. These are ordinarily made by men, but she did the best she could, and made him a bowand arrows. Then he told her to make him a wheel used for the buffalo game. She cried, and asked him where he expected her to get the hide that was necessary. He told her to soak a parfleche bag, and when it was soft to cut a string from it, and then paint it. She did this. When the hoop was fin- ished, he sat on the bed, and she at the door ; he told her to roll the wheel, saying to him: "There is a buffalo calf." When she said this, he shot the wheel through the heart (the central interstice), and there sat a buffalo calf, swaying and dying. The old woman skinned it, cut and dried the meat, and stretched the skin. He told her to save the fat as salve for his sore eyes. Next morning he told his grandmother to roll the wheel again, and this time he shot a grown calf. She packed away the first meat, and hung up what they

1 Evidently a modernized or corrupted version of a tale about " White-man," and similar to that given by J. O. Dorsey, op. cit. p. 105. See, also, Dorsey, pp. 67, 73, and Schoolcraft, op. cit. p. 62.

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