“He threw the chip. It floated. The woman said, ‘No, I will throw this stone into the water. If it floats, we shall live always; if it sinks, people must die.’ The rock sank. Old Man said, ‘You have chosen. That will be an end to them.’ By and by the child died and the woman wanted to change the law, but Old Man answered, ‘What is made law must be law.’ “At first people had claws like bears so that they might gather roots and berries. There were buffalo which killed and ate people. Old Man said, ‘I’ll change this. From this day on the people shall eat buffalo.’ So he cut some service-berry shoots and peeled them; then he took a flat piece of wood and tied strips of green hide to it and made a bow. On one end of each light, straight shoot, he tied a chip of hard stone, and on the other end he put a feather. He gave them to the men, saying, ‘Take these the next time you go among buffalo. Shoot as I have taught you.’ “When the arrows first struck the buffalo, it called out, ‘Oh, my friends, a great fly is biting me.’ After the buffalo had been killed, Old Man saw his people eat the raw flesh. ‘I will show you something better,’ said he. He gathered soft, dried, rotten wood. He took another piece of wood and rapidly drilled a hole in it with an arrow-head. A tiny flame soon sprang up from which he kindled a big fire and showed his children how to roast the meat.” The history of the forming of the Blackfeet Indian tribe is also very quaint, and it could not but have an especial appeal to Brother Van, for from his early youth his life had been one to encourage clean living. The story tells how one brave looked with disfavor upon the tribal vices and misdemeanors, and strove to bring the members into a finer, cleaner way of living. His own life was pure and good, and his people recognized this, but they would not heed his pleadings. Finally, he went off into the silence of the plains to communicate with the Great Spirit. He told of his desire for his people: that they should all be pure and strong; that the maidens should be contented; that they should dwell in a land where game abounded, and where wars should never come. From this great spiritual leader the Blackfeet tribe was said to have descended.