ally lay
down. Three of the men who were pursuing him shortly came up. The animal
was severely wounded, but not dead.

"I shall crawl up to him from behind and stab him," said Wamedee; "we
cannot wait here for him to die." The others agreed. Wamedee was not
considered especially brave; but he took out his knife and held it
between his teeth. He then approached the buffalo from behind and
suddenly jumped astride his back.

The animal was dreadfully frightened and struggled to his feet.
Wamedee's knife fell to the ground, but he held on by the long shaggy
hair. He had a bad seat, for he was upon the buffalo's hump. There was
no chance to jump off; he had to stay on as well as he could.

"Hurry! hurry! shoot! shoot!" he screamed, as the creature plunged and
kicked madly in the deep snow. Wamedee's face looked deathly, they said;
but his two friends could not help laughing. He was still calling upon
them to shoot, but when the others took aim he would cry: "Don't shoot!
don't shoot! you will kill me!" At last the animal fell down with him;
but Wamedee's two friends also fell down exhausted with laughter. He was
ridiculed as a coward thereafter.

It was on this very hunt that the chief Mato was killed by a buffalo. It
happened in this way. He had wounded the animal, but not fatally; so
he shot two more arrows at him from a distance. Then the buffalo became
desperate and charged upon him. In his flight Mato was tripped by
sticking one of his snow-shoes into a snowdrift, from which he could not
extricate himself in time. The bull gored him to death. The creek upon
which this happened is now called Mato creek.

A little way from our camp there was a log village of French Canadian
half-breeds, but the two villages did not intermingle. About the Moon of
Difficulty (January) we were initiated into some of the peculiar customs
of our neighbors. In the middle of the night there was a firing of
guns throughout their village. Some of the people thought they had been
attacked, and went over to assist them, but to their surprise they were
told that this was the celebration of the birth of the new year!

Our men were treated to minnewakan or "spirit water," and they came home
crazy and foolish. They talked loud and sang all the rest of the night.
Finally our head chief ordered his young men to tie these men up and put
them in a lodge by themselves. He gave orders to untie them "when the
evil spirit had gone away."

During the nex