Flaker performed the magical ceremony before the hunt began. Fleetfoot dressed in a bison’s skin so as to coax the herd along. Women and children hid behind piles of stone and brush. And the men formed themselves in line far out from the cliffs in the rear of the herd.
Everybody kept still until Fleetfoot’s signal sounded. Then the men sprang up and with loud shouts they ran after the herd. The bison saw Fleetfoot in disguise; and, thinking he was one of the herd, they followed where he led.
When the bison came near a pile of stones a woman or child frightened them. When they came near the fence of vines they were frightened away by the feathers and fur. And so the herd kept on toward the steep cliff.
And with loud shouts and drumbeats, with the clatter of weapons and hard hoofs, the bellowing herd galloped madly on toward the steep cliff. Then Fleetfoot, throwing off his disguise, slipped under one of the lines; but the frantic herd rushed headlong to the brink of the precipice. Then, seeing the danger, the foremost ones attempted to escape. But the maddened herd pressed blindly on and pushed them over the cliff.
After such a hunt as this, there was food enough for many days. Very likely the women dried meat during this time.
THINGS TO DO
Model in your sand-box a good place for the bison drive. Make the drive and show what happened from first to last.
Draw one of these pictures:—
Bison feeding some distance from the cliff.
Building a bison drive.
Fleetfoot leading the herd.
The bison at the edge of the cliff.
Drying meat.