THE GIFT OF THE SACRED DOG

"To the tribe of nomadic buffalo hunters, who lived on the Great Plains," says Goble's introductory note, "horses were truly miraculous. The tribes. . . tell factual accounts of the first horses they saw, but the story is told as well in ways which remind that Sacred Dogs were indeed given by the Great Spirit." So Goble tells this as a miracle come to a hungry tribe unable to find buffalo. One young boy treks to a hilltop to plead with the Great Spirit and is told that his people will "receive" the Sacred Dog. When the boy wakens and returns to his people, herds of Sacred Dogs pour down the hill with him. Goble's telling of this marginal legend is plain and undramatic—in contrast to the illustrations, which have a fresh, cutoutcrisp attractiveness but tend to become slick and craftsy at peak moments, inessential.