THE BUFFALO WOMEN

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(p. 197-8 missing in book)

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The little men got into their stone canoe, rowed away, and were never seen again.

Some time after this the Senecas collected a war party to go against the Cherokees. One of the party was the best runner of the Senecas.

Before the party reached the Cherokee country, they met the Cherokees and every Seneca was killed except the fast runner. He escaped from the enemy, got out of reach and started home on a different trail from the one the party had taken when coming. The third day, near noon, he came to a deer-lick and sat down to rest. As he sat there, he saw tracks that looked like the tracks of a very large bear; he got up and followed them till they stopped at a tall elm tree, then he saw that they were not the tracks of an ordinary bear but of one of the old kind, the great bear, NYAGWAIHE, and he thought, "No matter if I die, I will see this creature."

The tree was hollow, the man climbed up and looking into the hole saw the bear. It had no hair and its skin was as smooth as a man's.

The Seneca thought, "I mustn't bother this creature, I'll go back to the deer-lick." He hurried down the tree and ran off as fast as he could. As he ran he heard a terrible noise and looking around saw that the animal had come out of the hole and was following him. Going back some distance he ran forward and sprang into the deer lick, sinking almost to his waist in the mud. He couldn't get out of the lick and could only with great difficulty take a step forward, dragging one foot after the other. When the bear came to the lick it sprang at the man and sank in the mud. It worked its way to the middle of the lick and there sank out of sight.

'When the man reached solid ground he ran till he came to a fallen tree, then he sat down and began to think. He didn't know what to do, he had nothing to eat and was too tired to hunt. Soon a stranger came to him, and said, "You think that you are going to die?"

"I do."

"You will not. I have come to save you. Go to where I just came from, off in that direction," said he, pointing to one side, "you will find a fire and over it a kettle of

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meat. Rest and eat. Men will come and bother You but pay no attention to them. When you sit down to eat, one I will say, 'Throw a piece over this way,' another will say 'Throw a piece over this way.' But pay no heed to them: If you. throw even one morsel you are lost; they will kill you."

The man went as directed and found a kettle of meat and hulled corn. As he ate, it seemed as though a crowd formed in a circle around him. Each man of the crowd began to beg for a piece of meat. They begged all night, but he paid no attention to their begging.

In the morning, after the Seneca had traveled a short distance, he met the stranger who sent him to the kettle, The stranger said, "I am glad that you did as I told you. Go toward the East and when it is near night, sit down by a tree. I will come to you."

The man traveled all day. Near sunset he found a fallen tree and sat down.

Soon the stranger came. He said, "Follow my tracks back till you come to a fire. Over the fire is a kettle full of meat and hulled corn. You will be tormented as you were last night, but pay no heed to the begging. If you escape to-night, you will have no more trouble."

The Seneca went as directed. He found a fire and hanging over the fire a kettle. The kettle was full of meat and hulled corn.

That night men begged for meat as the night before but the Seneca paid no attention to them. The next morning the stranger came to him, and said, "If you keep on your way, you will reach home safe and well."

As he started along, the Seneca turned to look at his friend and saw, instead of a man, a SHAGODYOWEG GOWA. Towards night he got hungry and thought he had better look far game. He saw a deer, killed it with an arrow, and building a fire he roasted pieces of the meat and ate them. He was now strong and well.

The next afternoon he shot a deer, built a fire, roasted pieces of meat and ate them. When night came he lay down by the fire but he couldn't sleep. After a while two women came to his fire and one of them asked, "Are you awake?"

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"I am awake."

"I want you to marry my daughter," said the woman.

The man saw that the girl was good looking and he consented to marry her. He didn't know where to go and thought if he married he would have company and after a time might find his way home.

The next morning the mother said, "We will go home."

The three walked on till midday, then they came to a village where, it seemed to the young man, a good number of people were living. They stopped at one of the cabins. The mother-in-law said to him, "This is our home. You will stay with us."

The young man stayed a long time with his wife's parents. One night he heard the beating of a drum and heard his father-in-law say, "Eh! Eh!" The old man seemed frightened by the call.

The call meant that the chief of the village--the young buffalo that escaped from the DZOGÉON and now lived under a hill close by, was to have a dance, and that all the people of the village must come to it.

The next morning everyone went to the place where the drum was beaten, and dancing began. The crowd danced all day End all night. Young Buffalo and his two wives came out and danced. In the morning they went around among the crowd. Buffalo was very jealous. He pushed men away from his wives and wanted to fight. Then he went under the hill and his wives followed him.

The next day the old man said to his son-in-law, "Buffalo's wives will soon come out and go to the river for water. They will pass near you, but you must not speak or smile. Their husband is a bad man. If you speak or smile, he will know it and will harm you."

The young man didn't heed his father-in-law's words. The two women went to the river for water. As they came back, they smiled and looked pleasant and the young man asked them for a drink. They gave it to him and went on.

The old man said, "You didn't do as I told you to. Now the chief will come out and say that he is going to challenge a man to a foot race. He will name you."

Soon young Buffalo came and pointing at the Seneca said, "I challenge this stranger to run a race with me.

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[paragraph continues] If I am a better runner than he is, I will take his life. if he, is better than I am, he may take mine. We will begin early to-morrow morning and run around and around the hill. The one who is ahead at sundown will be the winner."

The old man said to his son-in-law, "You must have an extra pair of moccasins to put on when yours wear out."

The next morning young Buffalo came and said, "Now we will start!" and off he went.

At midday the young man's friends called to him to do his best for the chief was gaining on him, that he had just gone around the turn ahead. Soon he heard the chief's friends tell him to do his best for the young man was, gaining on him.

Buffalo got tired, went crooked and soon the young man overtook him. He didn't know how he was going to kill Buffalo for his side was one immense rib--these buffaloes were not like the buffaloes of to-day. He shot from behind, the arrow went in up to the feathers, only a bit of it stuck out.

The two ran around once more. As they came near the stopping place, the crowd called to the young man to shoot again. He did and killed the buffalo. So the words o the DZOGÉON were true--a common man killed young Buffalo. The people crowded around the Seneca and thanked him for what he had done.

His father-in-law said to the crowd, "Now, each man is free to go where he wants to."

The old man and his wife with their daughter-in-law went home.

Then the mother-in-law said to the young man, "Get ready, you must visit your mother."

Soon after the young man and his wife and her mother started. They were ten days on the road. It was Spring, the time of sugar making. When they were near his mother's house, his mother-in-law said, "My daughter and I will stop in this swamp. Your mother is making sugar, We will stay here, but we will help her all we can."

The young man saw his mother and at night went to the house, leaving the two women in the swamp. In the

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night the wife and mother collected all the sap and gathered a great quantity of wood.

The next morning, when the mother and son went to the woods, they found no sap in the troughs under the trees, but when they came to the boiling place they found the big trough full and a great pile of wood close by. This work went on for some days, then the woman said to her son-in-law, "It is time for me to go back to my husband. you are free now. Have no hard feelings. I shall take my daughter with me; you must stay with your mother. There are many girls who want to marry you but the girl you must marry is the granddaughter of the woman who lives in the house at the edge of the village. They are poor and the girl takes care of her grandmother."

"As you leave us, call out. When some one asks why you call, tell them that you have found buffalo tracks in the swamp. Let them come and shoot us; we will get home sooner."

They parted, the wife and mother-in-law going one way, the young man the other. As he went he called out. When men asked why he called, he said, "I've found buffalo tracks near the end of the swamp."

Hunters went out and soon overtook the buffaloes and shot them. When the buffaloes fell the hunters thought they had killed them, that they were dead, but they were not. When they were shot their loads dropped off and right away they were back at their old home. They left their bodies behind and people ate them, but their spirits went back to the old man and were buffaloes again.

The young man had been gone so long that the Senecas thought him a great man. Women wanted him for their daughters, but he refused every offer and married the granddaughter of the old woman who lived at the edge of the village.