Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/520

 172 Journal of A merican Folk-Lore.

Before daylight, the boy got up and went eastward. He gathered buffalo chips, and piled them on himself, so that they appeared as if they were a string of buffalo going south before the wind. Finally the sun rose, and he sent his wife to tell her father that there was a herd of buffalo. The chief cried out that his son-in-law had seen buffalo. The starving people prepared hastily. They went east, on a high hill, and then on the next hill, and there they saw a long line of buffalo. They headed them off, and killed every one. They butchered them, ate the raw meat, rejoiced, cried, and sang about what Little-man had done and the great help he had been to the tribe. The boy went by all the buffalo, pretending to take the best parts and put them in his shirt ; but he only took hair. He went to his father-in-law, threw down the hair, and it turned to ribs, tongues, and all the best pieces. He went out again with his wife, and a red-bird flew up and sat on his wife's head, and occasionally on his, and sang, and fluttered about. All saw this and wondered, especially White-man. The next day the very same thing happened. The buffalo were killed, and from their hair the boy made hides, pieces of meat, or whatever he wished. White-man also got hair from the buffalo, in imitation of Matceit, and he and his wife went home without carrying any meat, but with a great mass of hair. He had caught a red-headed woodpecker, and tied it with a string to his wife's hair. But the woodpecker sat on her head and pecked at it. When they arrived home, he told his wife to order his mother- in-law to prepare the hides and the meat ; but all the hair remained hair. The older sister was in love with her brother-in-law. One day he touched her on the skin of her shoulder, and his fingers, which were colored, left colored marks there. She was proud of this, and tore her dress open, to show the marks to every one, until her shoulder froze. That night the boy coughed again. Then White- .man also coughed, and struck his brands. A spark fell into his eye, and one into his wife's, so that their eyes spoiled and turned white. 1

xv.

There was a great camp, facing toward the sun (east). In the tent farthest on the right there lived a young girl. One morning she was missing. Every sunrise a girl was missing from the camp. An old man went around, inquiring who was gone. The village became frightened, and suddenly moved that very morning. They were so hasty that they left an old woman, forgetting her in their panic. When she was left behind, she looked for food and water for herself, but she had none and could find none. She went down to the river and drank. Looking up the river she saw something 1 Cf. Dorsey, op. cit. p. 604.

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