The girl entered the hut , where her husband and his mother were getting ready to go out . ' I want to go down to the lake , and bathe , ' said she . ` But you could never walk so far , ' answered they . ` You are so tired , as it is , that you can hardly stand ! ' However , in spite of their warnings , the girl left the hut in the direction of the lake . Very soon she came back weeping , and sobbed out : ' I met some one in the village who lives in my country , and he told me that my mother is very , very ill , and if I do not go to her at once she will be dead before I arrive . I will return as soon as I can , and now farewell . ' And she set forth in the direction of the mountains . But this story was not true ; she knew nothing about her mother , only she wanted an excuse to go home and tell her family that their prophecies had come true , and that the buffalo was dead . Balancing her basket on her head , she walked along , and directly she had left the village behind her she broke out into the song of the Rover of the Plain , and at last , at the end of the day , she came to the group of huts where her parents lived . Her friends all ran to meet her , and , weeping , she told them that the buffalo was dead . This sad news spread like lightning through the country , and the people flocked from far and near to bewail the loss of the beast who had been their pride . ` If you had only listened to us , ' they cried , ` he would be alive now . But you refused all the little girls we offered you , and would have nothing but the buffalo . And remember what the medicine-man said : `` If the buffalo dies you die also ! '' ' So they bewailed their fate , one to the other , and for a while they did not perceive that the girl 's husband was sitting in their midst , leaning his gun against a tree . Then one man , turning , beheld him , and bowed mockingly . ` Hail , murderer ! hail ! you have slain us all ! '
The young man stared , not knowing what he meant , and answered , wonderingly : ' I shot a buffalo ; is that why you call me a XXXXX ? ' '
Hail fate friends girl girls head husband hut murderer tree