The owner put the stone in his lodge,
near the fire, and prayed over it. This
story reveals not only the use of such
a rock, but also a common method of
hunting buffalo before the Indians
had horses.

There was once a very poor woman, the
second wife of a Blackfeet. Her buffalo
robe was old and full of holes; her
buffalo moccasins were worn and ripped.
She and her people were camped not far
from a cliff that would be a good
place for a buffalo drive. They were
very much in need of buffalo, for
they were not only ragged but starving.

One day while this poor woman was
gathering wood, she heard a voice
singing. Looking around, she found that
the song was coming from a buffalo
rock. It sang, "Take me. Take me.
I have great power."

So the woman took the buffalo rock.
When she returned to her lodge, she
said to her husband, "Call all the men
and have them sing to bring the buffalo."

"Are you in earnest?" her husband asked.
"Yes, I am," the woman replied. "Call
the men, and also get a small piece of
the back of a buffalo from the Bear
Medicine man. Ask some of the men to
bring the four rattles they use."

The husband did as his wife directed.
Then she showed him how to arrange the
inside of the lodge in a kind of square
box with some sagebrush and buffalo
chips.

Though it was the custom for the first
wife to sit next to her husband, the
man directed his second wife to put on
the dress of the other woman and to sit
beside him. When everything was ready,
the men who had been summoned sat down
in the lodge beside the woman and her
husband. Then the buffalo rock began to
sing, "The buffalo will all drift back.
The buffalo will all drift back."

Hearing this song, the woman asked
one of the young men to go outside and
put a great many buffalo chips in line.
"After you have them in place, wave at
them with a buffalo robe four times,
and shout at them in a singsong.
At the fourth time, all the buffalo
chips will turn into buffaloes and
go over the cliff."

The young man followed her directions,
and the chips became buffaloes. At
the same time, the woman led the people
in the lodge in the singing of songs.
One song was about the buffalo that
would lead the others in the drive.

While the people were chanting it, a
cow took the lead and all the herd
followed her. They plunged over the
cliff and were killed.

Then the woman sang, "More than a
hundred buffalo Have fallen over
the cliff.I have made them fall.
And the man above the earth hears
me singing. More than a hundred buffalo
Have fallen over the cliff.