with it, but he made as if he would--when all at once she vanished
and was never seen again.




THE BUFFALO STONE


A small stone, which is often a fossil shell, or sometimes only a
queer shaped piece of flint, is called by the Blackfeet
I-n[)i]s´k[)i]m, the buffalo stone. This stone has great power, and
gives its owner good luck in bringing the buffalo close, so that
they may be killed. The stone is found on the prairie, and any one
who finds one is thought to be very lucky. Sometimes a man who is
going along on the prairie will hear a queer faint chirp, such as a
little bird might make. He knows this sound is made by a buffalo
stone. He stops and searches for it on the ground, and if he cannot
find it, marks the place and comes back next day to look for it
again. If it is found, he and all his family are glad. The Blackfeet
tell a story about how the first buffalo stone was found.

Long ago, one winter, the buffalo disappeared. The snow was deep, so
deep that the people could not move in search of the buffalo; so
the hunters went as far as they could up and down the river-bottoms
and in the ravines, and killed deer and elk and other small game,
and when these were all killed or driven away the people began to
starve.

One day a young married man killed a prairie rabbit. He ran home as