§ 238. Miss Fletcher[180] mentions a prayer used during the White Buffalo Festival of the Hunkpapa Dakota, in which are remembered the “powers of the earth, wind, sun, water, and the buffalo.” And in her article on “The Shadow or Ghost Lodge; a Ceremony of the Ogallala Sioux,” she states that 2 yards of red cloth are (were) “lifted and offered to the buffalo, with a prayer that good may (might) be granted to the father” (i. e., of the dead child) “during the period of the lodge-keeping.”[181] § 239. In her article on the “Elk Mystery of the Ogallala Sioux”[182] is given an important note: Among the Santees in past times, a man who should dream of buffalo must announce it in the following manner: He takes the head of a buffalo he has killed, carefully removes the skin, preserving it as nearly whole as possible, and throws away the skull and the flesh. He then restores the skin to its natural shape and lets it cure. When this has taken place, a few feet square of earth is set apart at the back of the lodge, the sods cut off, and the exposed earth made fine. This is the “U-ma-ne.” Upon this earth a new blanket, formerly a robe, is spread. The blanket or robe must not belong to a woman. The buffalo head is placed in the center of the blanket, and one side of the head (is) painted blue, and the other (side) red. Upon the blue side, tufts of white swan’s down are tied to the hair of the head. Sometimes small eagle feathers are substituted, and, very rarely, large feathers. Upon the red side, tufts of down-colored red are similarly tied. These decorations look like “a woman’s sunbonnet,” as they cover the head and fall to the shoulders. The pipe is only filled and presented to the head. The feast kettle is hung over the fire. When all is in readiness, the man who prepared the head thus addresses it: “Grandfather! Venerable man! Your children have made this feast for you. May the food thus taken cause them to live, and bring them good fortune.” An Indian of remarkable intelligence, whose father before him had been a priest of the higher class, explained that in some religious festivals the buffalo and the earth were spoken of as one, and (were) so regarded. “Therefore if any one should revile or ridicule the buffalo, ever so softly, the earth would hear and tell the buffalo, and he would kill the man.” Bushotter furnished two articles on the buffalo, translations of which are appended. ORIGIN OF THE BUFFALO.