Tradition: American Mythology
Alternative names: Old Bull
Category: Cow
The Myth
When Stone Boy was returning home, he had been trying to understand why so many buffalo had gathered near the home he shared with his uncles. He approached several groups of young buffalo, but each group fled as soon as it saw him. Stone Boy continued from one group to another, scattering them until he eventually became tired of their cowardice and began making his way home.
When he was about half a mile from home, he encountered an old, shaggy buffalo standing beside a large boulder. The old bull repeatedly rubbed one horn against the stone and then the other, apparently trying to sharpen them.
Stone Boy approached and discovered that the bull was extremely old and nearly blind. His horns were so blunt that he could have rubbed them against the boulder for an entire year without making them sharp enough to hurt anyone.
When Stone Boy asked what he was doing, the old bull explained that he was sharpening his horns for the coming war.
The bull revealed that the chief’s twins had been killed by Stone Boy, who had supposedly driven them over a cut bank deliberately. In response, the chief had ordered all of his buffalo to gather together. Once they had assembled, they intended to kill Stone Boy, his mother, and his uncles.
Stone Boy thanked the old bull for revealing the plan and offered to save him the trouble of continuing to sharpen his useless horns. He pointed out that the bull was too old to participate in such a war and might fall into a hole, stumble, and be trampled by the other buffalo.
The old bull, being nearly blind and unaware of what Stone Boy was doing, stood still, apparently believing that Stone Boy was helping him.
Stone Boy drew an arrow, pulled his bowstring back, and told the old bull that he would spare him the suffering of dying in the coming battle.
He then released the arrow.
The arrow struck the bull behind the foreleg with such force that it passed completely through his body and continued on until it embedded itself in a tree roughly two hundred feet away.
Sources
McLaughlin, Marie L. Myths and Legends of the Sioux. Bismarck, N.D.: Bismarck Tribune Co., 1916. Internet Archive