“The head-chief of the buffalo is looking for something to hook.”
The two women knelt beside the bundle and imitated the Bull hooking with his horns. Mad Wolf chanted the “Hurry” Song; and the women removed the elkskin cover. The inner bundle was wrapped in a rare and beautiful buffalo skin with the color of a beaver. Then Mad Wolf began a solemn chant, while the women opened this sacred buffalo robe, and revealed the skins and relics of many birds and animals of prairies and mountains. He took a beaver skin from the bundle and sang:
“I go from my lodge.
I see an enemy.
I dive under the water and am safe.”
He moved the skin in imitation of a beaver swimming; suddenly it dove under the water to escape an enemy. At the same time the two women knelt beside the bundle and pantomimed with their hands the movements of beavers swimming and working on their dams. They danced on their knees, gracefully swaying their bodies to the rhythm of the drumming, while the rest of us sang a Beaver Song and beat time on the buffalo hides.
Then each of the women took the beaver-skin in turn and with bowed head held it reverently to her breast and prayed to the spirit of the Beaver:
“I take you, my child, that my relatives and children may be free from sickness.”
Two more women knelt in front of the bundle. Then these four women together imitated beavers, moving their bodies in time with the chanting and drumming. They covered [[60]]their heads to represent beavers hidden in their den under the water. Then the imaginary beavers rose to the surface of the water and swam around while working on their dams. Mad Wolf brought forth a bag of beaver-gnawed-sticks and handed them to the women. They held these sticks in their mouths, like beavers holding branches. They made swimming motions with their hands, and imitated beavers diving under the water, then coming to the surface and swimming in the stream. They went out upon an imaginary bank; and sat upright as if to cut down trees, brushing their faces with their hands as beavers do with their paws; looking carefully around, always alert for danger.
The four women danced together round the tepee, with hands crossed on their breasts. They kept turning and swaying their bodies in time with the chanting and drumming of the beaver men. Mad Wolf handed a beaver-skin to his wife who was at the head of the line. The singing and drumming of the beaver men now became louder, while the women circled the fire and gave the call of the beaver. Gives-to-the-Sun in the lead held the beaver-skin under her robe and moved it as though it were swimming round her waist and then round her neck. After she had danced once round the tepee, she handed the skin to the woman next in line, with the prayer: