a Wisdom TALE told

Spider Woman~ ACHOMAWI

Spider Woman's web hung white with frost. Her sixty little spider children shivered as they slept. Snow had fallen every day for months. All the animals were cold, hungry, and frightened. Food supplies were almost gone. No one knew what to do. Blue Jay and Redheaded Woodpecker sang and danced for Silver Gray Fox, who floats above the clouds. Since Silver Gray Fox, the creator, had made the whole world with a song and a dance, Blue Jay and Woodpecker hoped to be answered with blue skies. But the snow kept falling.

Finally the animals decided to ask Coyote. "Coyote's been around a long time, almost since the beginning. He might know how to reach Silver Gray Fox." They went to the cave where Coyote was sleeping, told him their troubles, and asked for help. "Grrrrowwwlll...go away," grumbled Coyote, "and let me think." Coyote stuck his head into the cold air outside and thought till he caught an idea. He tried singing in little yelps and loud yowls to Silver Gray Fox. Coyote sang and sang, but Silver Gray Fox didn't listen, or didn't want to. After all, it was Coyote's mischief-making when the world was new that had caused Silver Gray Fox to go away beyond the clouds in the first place.

Coyote thought he'd better think some more. Suddenly he saw Spider Woman swinging down on a silky thread from the top of the tallest tree in the forest. "Spider Woman's been on Earth a long, long time," Coyote thought. "She's very wise. I'll ask her what to do." Coyote loped over to the tree and lifted his ears to Spider Woman. "Spider Woman, O wise weaver, O clever one," called Coyote in his sweetest voice, "we're all cold and hungry. Everyone's afraid this winter will never end. Silver Gray Fox doesn't seem to notice. Can you help?" Spider Woman swayed her shining black body back and forth, back and forth, thinking and thinking, thinking and thinking.

Her 8 black eyes sparkled when she spoke, "I know how to reach Silver Gray Fox, Coyote, but I'm not the one for the work. Everyone will have to help. You'll need my two youngest children, too. They're little and light as dandelion fluff, and the fastest spinners in my web." Spider Woman called up to her two littlest ones. Spinnnnnn! Spinnnnnn! They came down fast, each spinning on 8 little legs, fine, black twin Spider Boys, full of curiosity and fun. Spider Woman said, "My dear little quick ones, are you ready for a great adventure?" "Yes! Yes!" they cried. "We're ready!"

Spider Woman told them her plan, and the Spider Boys set off with Coyote in the snow. They hadn't gone far when they met two White-Footed Mouse Brothers rooting around for seeds to eat. Coyote told them Spider Woman's plan. "Will you help?" he asked. "Yes! Yes! We'll help!" they squeaked, and they all traveled the trail towards Mount Shasta until they met Weasel Man looking hungry and even thinner than usual.

Coyote told Weasel Man his plan. "Will you help?" asked Coyote. "Of course," rasped Weasel Man, joining them on the trail. Before long they came across Red Fox Woman swishing her big fluffy tail through the bushes. "Will you help?" asked "Of course, I'll come," crooned Red Fox Woman. Then Rabbit Woman poked her head out of her hole. "I'll come too," she sneezed, shivering despite her thick fur.

Meadowlark wrapped a winter shawl around her wings, and trudged after the others along the trail to the top of Mount Shasta. The snow had stopped, but the sky was still cloudy. On top of Mount Shasta, Coyote barked, "Will our two best archers step forward?" The two White Footed Mouse Brothers proudly lifted their bows.

"Everyone listen," barked Coyote. "If any one of us is only half-hearted, Spider Woman’s plan will fail. To get through the clouds to Silver Gray Fox, we must each share our powers whole-heartedly, our thoughts, our dreams, our strength, and our songs. Now, you White-Footed Mouse Brothers, I want you to shoot arrows at exactly the same spot in the sky."

Turning to the others, Coyote said, "Spider Boys, start spinning spider silk as fast as you can. Weasel Man, White- Footed Mouse Brothers, Red Fox Woman, Rabbit Woman, and I will sing and make music. We must sing with all our might or the Spider Boys won't make it." "One!" called Coyote. Everyone got ready. "Two!" The animals drew in deep breaths. The Mouse Brothers pulled back their bowstrings. 

"Three!" Two arrows shot straight up and stuck at the same spot in the clouds.

"Whiff wiff! Wiff wiff!" sang the White Footed Mouse Brothers. "Yiyipyipla!" sang Red Fox Woman. 

"Wowooooolll!" sang Coyote. Rabbit Woman shook her magic rattle. Weasel Man beat his very old and worn elk-hide drum. The Spider Boys hurled out long lines of spider silk, weaving swiftly with all their legs. The animals sang up a whirlwind of sound to lift the spider silk until it caught on the arrows in the clouds. Then the Spider Twins scurried up the lines of silk and scrambled through the opening.

All the while, down below, the animals continued singing, rattling and drumming. The little Spiders sank, breathless, onto the clouds. Silver Gray Fox spied them and called out, "What are you two doing here?" The Spider Boys bent low on their little legs and answered, "O Silver Gray Fox, we bring greetings from our mother, Spider Woman, and all the creatures of the world below. We've come to ask if you'd please let the sun shine again. The whole world is cold. Everyone is hungry. Everyone is afraid spring will not return, ever."

They were so sincere and polite that Silver Gray Fox became gentler, and asked, "How did you two get up here?" The Spider Boys said "Listen, can you hear the people singing? Can you hear the drum and rattle?" Silver Gray Fox heard the drum and rattle and the people singing. When the Spider Boys finished telling their story, Silver Gray Fox was pleased. "I'm happy when creatures use their powers together. I'm especially glad to hear Coyote's been helping too. Your mother, Spider Woman, made a good plan. To reward all your hard work, I'll create a sign to show that the skies will clear. And you two may help.

"First picture the sun shining bright," called Silver Gray Fox. The Spider Boys thought hard and saw the sun sending out fiery rays in all directions. "Now, where sunrays meet the damp air," sang Silver Gray Fox, Picture a stripe of red, Red as Woodpecker's head, add a stripe nearby of bluest Blue Jay blue. The Spider Boys thought hard, and great stripes appeared of red and blue. Silver Gray Fox chanted. Now in between, add stripes of orange, yellow and green! The Spider Boys thought hard. Then, dazzling their eyes, a beautiful bright arc of colors curved across the whole sky above the clouds. It was the very first rainbow.

Meanwhile, down below, beneath the clouds, the animals and people were so cold, hungry, and tired that they had stopped singing and drumming. Spider Woman missed her two youngest children. Each day she missed them more. She blamed Coyote for the trouble. So did the other animals. Coyote slipped away silent, lonely and sad. Above, on the clouds, the Twins rested. Their legs ached and their minds were tired.

Silver Gray Fox said, "You did what I asked and kept it secret. That's very difficult, so I'm giving you a special reward. On wet mornings, when the sun starts to shine, you'll see what I mean." Then the Spider Boys spun down to Earth, and ran back to their mother as fast as they could. Spider Woman cried for joy and wrapped all her legs around her two littlest children. Their fifty-eight sisters and brothers jumped up and down with happiness. All the animals gathered around to hear the Spiders story. When they finished, the Spider Boys cried, "Look up!" Everyone looked up. The clouds had drifted apart. There, bridging sky to earth in a radiant arch was the very first rainbow.

Sun began to warm the earth. Shoots of grass pushed up through the melting snow. Meadowlark blew her silver whistle of spring across the valley, calling streams and rivers awake. Coyote came out of hiding, raced to a distant hilltop, and gave a long, long howl of joy. The animals held a great feast to honor the rainbow, Silver Gray Fox, Spider Woman, the Spider Twins, Coyote, and the hard work everyone had done together.

To this day, after the rain, when the sun comes out, dewdrops on spider webs shine with tiny rainbows. This is the spiders' special reward. You can see for yourself.

from Beatrice Bowles', master storyteller, wealth of stories

Turtle & Coyote

How The Turtle Out Hunting Duped The Coyote – Zuñi


In the times of the ancients, long, long ago, near the Highflowing River on the Zuñi Mountains, there lived an old Turtle. He went out hunting, one day, and by means of his ingenuity killed a large, fine deer. When he had thrown the deer to the ground, he had no means of skinning it. He sat down and reflected, scratching the lid of his eye with the nail of his hind foot. He concluded he would have to go hunting for a flint-knife; therefore he set forth. He came after a while to a place where old buildings had stood. Then he began to hum an old magic song, such as, it is said, the ancients sung when they hunted for the flint of which to make knives. He sang in this way:

"Apatsinan tse wash,
Apatsinan tse wash,
        Tsepa! Tsepa!"

which may be translated, not perhaps correctly, but well enough:

Fire-striking flint-stone, oh, make yourself known!
Fire-striking flint-stone, oh, make yourself known!
        Magically! Magically!

As he was thus crawling about and singing, a Coyote running through the woods overheard him.

He exclaimed: "Uh! I wonder who is singing and what he is saying. Ah, he is hunting for a flint-knife, is he?--evidently somebody who has killed a deer!" He turned back, and ran over to where the old Turtle was. As he neared him, he cried out: "Halloo, friend! Didn't I hear you singing?"

"Yes," was the reply of the Turtle.

"What were you singing?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Yes, you were, too. What were you saying?"

"Nothing in particular, I tell you; at least, nothing that concerns you."

"Yes, you were saying something, and this is what you said." And so the Coyote, who could not sing the song, deliberately repeated the words he had heard.

"Well, suppose I did say so; what of that?" said the Turtle.

"Why, you were hunting for a flint-knife; that is why you said what you did," replied the Coyote.

"Well, what of that?"

"What did you want the flint-knife for?"

"Nothing in particular," replied the Turtle.

"Yes, you did; you wanted it for something. What was it?"

"Nothing in particular, I say," replied the Turtle. "At least, nothing that concerns you."

"Yes, you did want it for something," said the Coyote, "and I know what it was, too."

"Well, what?" asked the Turtle, who was waxing rather angry.

"You wanted it to skin a deer with; that's what you wanted it for. Where is the deer now, come? You have killed a deer and I know it. Tell, where is it."

"Well, it lies over yonder," replied the Turtle.

"Where? Come, let us go; I'll help you skin it."

"I can get along very well without you," replied the Turtle.

"What if I do help you a little? I am very hungry this morning, and would like to lap up the blood."

"Well, then, come along, torment!" replied the Turtle. So, finding a knife, they proceeded to where the deer was lying.

"Let me hold him for you," cried the Coyote. Whereupon he jumped over the deer, spread out its hind legs, and placed a paw on each of them, holding the body open; and thus they began to skin the deer. When they had finished this work, the Coyote turned to the Turtle and asked: "How much of him are you going to give me?"

"The usual parts that fall to anyone who comes along when the hunter is skinning a deer," replied the Turtle.

"What parts?" eagerly asked the Coyote.

"Stomach and liver," replied the Turtle, briefly.

"I won't take that," whined the Coyote. "I want you to give me half of the deer."

"I'll do no such thing," replied the Turtle. "I killed the deer; you only helped to skin him, and you ought to be satisfied with my liberality in giving you the stomach and liver alone. I'll throw in a little fat, to be sure, and some of the intestines; but I'll give you no more."

"Yes, you will, too," snarled the Coyote, showing his teeth.

"Oh, will I?" replied the Turtle, deliberately, hauling in one or two of his flippers.

"Yes, you will; or I'll simply murder you, that's all."

The Turtle immediately pulled his feet, head, and tail in, and cried: "I tell you, I'll give you nothing but the stomach and liver and some of the intestines of this deer!"

"Well, then, I will forthwith kill you!" snapped the Coyote, and he made a grab for the Turtle. Kopo! sounded his teeth as they struck on the hard shell of the Turtle; and, bite as he would, the Turtle simply slipped out of his mouth every time he grabbed him. He rolled the Turtle over and over to find a good place for biting, and held him between his paws as if he were a bone, and gnawed at him; but, do his best, kopo, kopo! his teeth kept slipping off the Turtle's hard shell. At last he exclaimed, rather hotly: "There's more than one way of killing a beast like you!" So he set the Turtle up on end, and, catching up a quantity of sand, stuffed it into the hole where the Turtle's head had disappeared and tapped it well down with a stick until he had completely filled the crevice. "There, now," he exclaimed, with a snicker of delight. "I think I have fixed you now, old Hardshell, and served you right, too, you old stingy-box!"--whereupon he whisked away to the meat.

The Turtle considered it best to die, as it were; but he listened intently to what was going on. The Coyote cut up the deer and made a package of him in his own skin. Then he washed the stomach in a neighboring brook and filled it with choppings of the liver and kidneys, and fat stripped from the intestines, and clots of blood, dashing in a few sprigs of herbs here and there. Then, according to the custom of hunters in all times, he dug an oven in the ground and buried the stomach, in order to make a baked blood-pudding of it while he was summoning his family and friends to help him take the meat home.

The Turtle clawed a little of the sand away from his neck and peered out just a trifle. He heard the Coyote grunting as he tried to lift the meat in order to hang it on a branch of a neighboring pine tree. He was just exclaiming: "What a lucky fellow I am to come on that lame, helpless old wretch and get all this meat from him without the trouble of hunting for it, to be sure! Ah, my dear children, my fine old wife, what a feast we will have this day!"--for you know the Coyote had a large family over the way,--he was just exclaiming this, I say, when the Turtle cried out, faintly: "Natipa!"

"You hard-coated old scoundrel! You ugly, crooked-legged beast! You stingy-box!" snarled the Coyote. "So you are alive, are you?" Dropping the meat, he leaped back to where the Turtle was lying, his head hauled in again, and, jamming every crevice full of sand, made it hard and firm. Then, hitting the Turtle a clip with the tip of his nose, he sent him rolling over and over like a flat, round stone down the slope.

"This is fine treatment to receive from the hands of such a sneaking cur as that," thought the Turtle. "I think I will keep quiet this time and let him do as he pleases. But through my ingenuity I killed the deer, and it may be that through ingenuity I can keep the deer."

So the Turtle kept perfectly dead, to all appearances, and the Coyote, leaving the meat hanging on a low branch of a tree and building a fire over the oven he had excavated, whisked away with his tail in the air to his house just the other side of the mountain.

When he arrived there he cried out: "Wife, wife! Children, children! Come, quick! Great news! Killed an enormous deer today. I have made a blood-pudding in his stomach and buried it. Let us go and have a feast; then you must help me bring the meat home."

Those Coyotes were perfectly wild. The cubs, half-grown, with their tails more like sticks than brushes, trembled from the ends of their toe-nails to the tips of their stick-like tails; and they all set off--the old ones ahead, the young ones following single file-as fast as they could toward the place where the blood-pudding was buried.

Now, as soon as the old Turtle was satisfied that the Coyote had left, he dug the sand out of his collar with his tough claws, and, proceeding to the place where the meat hung, first hauled it up, piece by piece, to the very top of the tree; for Turtles have claws, you know, and can climb, especially if the trunk of the tree leans over, as that one did. Having hauled the meat to the very topmost branches of the tree, and tied it there securely, he descended and went over to where the blood-pudding was buried. He raked the embers away from it and pulled it out; then he dragged it off to a neighboring ant-hill where the red fire-ants were congregated in great numbers. Immediately they began to rush out, smelling the cooked meat, and the Turtle, untying the end of the stomach, chucked as many of the ants as he could into it. Then he dragged the pudding back to the fire and replaced it in the oven, taking care that the coals should not get near it.

He had barely climbed the tree again and nestled himself on his bundle of meat, when along came those eager Coyotes. Everything stuck up all over them with anxiety for the feast--their hair, the tips of their ears, and the points of their tails; and as they neared the place and smelt the blood and the cooked meat, they began to sing and dance as they came along, and this was what they sang:

"Na-ti tsa, na-ti tsa!
    Tui-ya si-si na-ti tsa!
    Tui-ya si-si na-li tsa!
        Tui-ya si-si! Tui-ya si-si!"

We will have to translate this--which is so old that who can remember exactly what it means?--thus:

Meat of the deer, meat of the deer!
    Luscious fruit-like meat of the deer!
     Luscious fruit-like meat of the deer!
        Luscious fruit-like! Luscious fruit-like

No sooner had they neared the spot where they smelt the meat than, without looking around at all, they made a bound for it. But the old Coyote grabbed the hindmost of the young ones by the car until he yelped, shook him, and called out to all the rest: "Look you here! Eat in a decent manner or you will burn your chops off! I stuffed the pudding full of grease, and the moment you puncture it, the grease, being hot, will fly out and burn you. Be careful and dignified, children. There is plenty of time, and you shall be satisfied. Don't gorge at the first helping!"

But the moment the little Coyotes were freed, they made a grand bounce for the tempting stomach, tearing it open, and grabbing huge mouthfuls. It may be surmised that the fire-ants were not comfortable. They ran all over the lips and cheeks of the voracious little gormands and bit them until they cried out, shaking their heads and rubbing them in the sand: "Atu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu!"

"There, now, didn't I tell you, little fools, to be careful? It was the grease that burnt you. Now I hope you know enough to eat a little more moderately. There's plenty of time to satisfy yourselves, I say," cried the old Coyote, sitting down on his haunches.

Then the little cubs and the old woman attacked the delicacy again. "Atu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu!" they exclaimed, shaking their heads and flapping their cars; and presently they all went away and sat down, observing this wonderful hot pudding.[1]

Then the Coyote looked around and observed that the meat was gone, and, following the grease and blood spots up the tree with his eye, saw in the top the pack of meat with the Turtle calmly reclining upon it and resting, his head stretched far out on his hand. The Turtle lifted his head and exclaimed: "Pe-sa-las-ta-i-i-i-i!"

"You tough-hided old beast!" yelled the Coyote, in an ecstasy of rage and disappointment. "Throw down some of that meat, now, will you? I killed that deer; you only helped me skin him; and here you have stolen all the meat. Wife! Children! Didn't I kill the deer?" he cried, turning to the rest.

"Certainly you did, and he's a sneaking old wretch to steal it from you!" they exclaimed in chorus, looking longingly at the pack of meat in the top of the tree.

"Who said I stole the meat from you?" cried out the Turtle. "I only hauled it up here to keep it from being stolen, you villain! Scatter yourselves out to catch some of it. I will throw as fine a pair of ribs down to you as ever you saw. There, now, spread yourselves out and get close together. Ready?" he called, as the Coyotes lay down on their backs side by side and stretched their paws as

[1. It may be well to explain here that there is no more intensely painful or fiery bite known than the bite of the fire-ant or red ant of the Southwest and the tropics, named, in Zuñi, halo. Large pimples and blisters are raised by the bite, which is so venomous, moreover, that for the time being it poisons the blood and fills every vein of the body with burning sensations.]

high as they could eagerly and tremblingly toward the meat.

"Yes, yes!" cried the Coyotes, in one voice. "We are all ready! Now, then!"

The old Turtle took up the pair of ribs, and, catching them in his beak, crawled out to the end of the branch immediately over the Coyotes, and, giving them a good fling, dropped them as hard as he could. Over and over they fell, and then came down like a pair of stones across the bodies of the Coyotes, crushing the wind out of them, so that they had no breath left with which to cry out, and most of them were instantly killed. But the two little cubs at either side escaped with only a hurt or two, and, after yelling fearfully, one of them took his tail between his legs and ran away. The other one, still very hungry, ran off with his tail lowered and his nose to the ground, sidewise, until he had got to a safe distance, and then he sat down and looked up. Presently he thought he would return and eat some of the meat from the ribs.

"Wait!" cried the old Turtle, "don't go near that meat; leave it alone for your parents and brothers and sisters. Really, I am so old and stiff that it took me a long time to get out to the end of that limb, and I am afraid they went to sleep while I was getting there, for see how still they lie."

"By my ancestors!" exclaimed the Coyote, looking at them; "that is so."

"Why don't you come up here and have a feast with me," said the Turtle, "and leave that meat alone for your brothers and sisters and your old ones?"

"How can I get up there?" whined the Coyote, crawling nearer to the tree.

"Simply reach up until you get your paw over one of the branches, and then haul yourself up," replied the Turtle.

The little Coyote stretched and jumped, and, though he sometimes succeeded in getting his paw over the branch, he fell back, flop! every time. And then he would yelp and sing out as though every bone in his body was broken.

"Never mind! never mind cried the Turtle. "I'll come down and help you." So he crawled down the tree, and, reaching over, grabbed the little Coyote by the topknot, and by much struggling he was able to climb up. When they got to the top of the tree the Turtle said, "There, now, help yourself."

The little Coyote fell to and filled himself so full that he was as round as a plum and elastic as a cranberry. Then he looked about and licked his chops and tried to breathe, but couldn't more than half, and said: "Oh, my! if I don't get some water I'll choke!"

"My friend," said the Turtle, "do you see that drop of water gleaming in the sun at the end of that branch of this pine tree?" (It was really pitch.) "Now, I have lived in the tops of trees so much that I know where to go. Trees have springs. Look at that."

The Coyote looked and was convinced.

"Walk out, now, to the end of the branch, or until you come to one of those drops of water, then take it in your mouth and suck, and all the water you want will flow out."

The little Coyote started. He trembled and was unsteady on his legs, but managed to get half way. "Is it here?" he called, turning round and looking back.

"No, a little farther," said the Turtle.

So he cautiously stepped a little farther. The branch was swaying dreadfully. He turned his head, and just as he was saying, "Is it here?" he lost his balance and fell plump to the ground, striking so hard on the tough earth that he was instantly killed.

"There, you wretched beast!" said the old Turtle with a sigh of relief and satisfaction. "Ingenuity enabled me to kill a deer. Ingenuity enabled me to retain the deer."

It must not be forgotten that one of the little Coyotes ran away. He had numerous descendants, and ever since that time they have been characterized by pimples all over their faces where the mustaches grow out, and little blotches inside of their lips, such as you see inside the lips of dogs.

Thus shortens my story.

Zuñi Folk Tales, by Frank Hamilton Cushing [1901]. Introduction by John Wesley Powell. and is now in the public domain.

YESTERDAYS cartoons: the Tricksters

These characters contributed to the magic of my childhood. The way they balanced the dark and light elements of living informed us, as children. That ability is an art form seldom taught, rarely acknowledged, and even scarce are the practitioner of the art. I do know of one: Adruma Victoria.

- Gregory E. Woods 10.21.10

Jicarilla Apache story of Coyote & Owl

Coyote Takes Arrows From Owl  

Owl was the one who had arrows. He had a club also with which he killed men whom he ate. "Up at the low gap I am watching for men, wû hwû wô," he sang. 

Coyote came walking along in front of him. 

"Wû hwû wô," sang Owl, "I am looking for men in the low gap." The two came face to face there. "Now," said Owl, "the one who vomits human flesh will kill men." 

"Very well," said Coyote, "shut your eyes." 

Owl Shut his eyes. When he vomited, Coyote put his hand under and took the meat. The grasshoppers which Coyote vomited he put in Owl's hand.

"Now open your eyes," said Coyote. 

Owl looked and saw the grasshoppers lying in his hand. Coyote showed him the meat. "What did I tell you," said Coyote, "this is the meat I threw up." 

"Where did I drink in the grasshoppers?" said Owl.

Coyote ran all around Owl. "Because I run fast like this I eat people," said Coyote. "These legs of yours are too large, I will fix them for you. Shut your eyes." 

Coyote cut Owl's leg, trimming away the meat. "Dô xaaa you must say," Coyote told him. He broke his leg with a stone and took the arrows away leaving him only the club.


Coyote ran around Owl who threw his club at him. He would say, "Come back, my club," and it would come back to him. He threw it again. "Come here my club," he called. He hit him with it. 

Coyote said, "Wherever a stick falls when one throws it there it will lie." The club did not return to Owl.

"Now you will live right here in the canyon where many arrows will be in front of you. Somebody might kill you," Coyote told him. 

Owl hitched himself along into the canyon. "Arrows painted black may kill you," said Coyote. Coyote went around in front of him and shot him with his own (Owl's) arrows.

After that everybody was afraid of Coyote who went around killing off the people.

Jicarilla Apache Texts, by Pliny Earle Goddard; New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. VIII; (1911) and is now in the public domain.

from archives of BLUE PANTHER 

Coyote, The Hawk, And The Condor - Gashowu Yokuts

There was a woman whom no one was able to marry, except finally Coyote. He overcame her. She was wachwach; a handsome species of Hawk. She lived alone. 

Wolf and Coyote and their families lived in one place with other people. Many men went out to hunt deer but never found any. The wildcat and the weasel and others went. The magpie was "beniti." He could see from inside his house and know everything. He saw that the Hawk-Woman had supernatural power. She was able to kill a deer and immediately eat it entirely leaving only the skin. 

Then the Wolf and Coyote found the woman. She gave them an abundance of acorn mush. She also cooked dried deer meat for them and gave it to them to take home. She said to them: "Tell no one, but when you want more for your children, come and get it." 

The wolf and Coyote arrived at night. Their poor little children had to eat the meat they brought slowly so that no one would hear them. Nevertheless the magpie knew it. Then the people also could smell the meat. Knowing that the two brothers had meat they watched at night. Then they saw them return and the old woman get up, take the meat, cook it, and all of them eat. 

Then the watchers reported to the others: "They are killing deer but give none of the meat away." 

The Eagle was the chief. The Dove was his messenger (winatum). Thinking he would ask advice of the magpie the eagle sent the dove to him. The magpie only laughed at the messenger. 

"Yes, Coyote and the wolf have found a supernatural woman. She lives beyond this hill. She has more dried meat than she can use. She keeps the deer inside the hill under ground. That is where she gets the meat." 

Then all the people went to that place, to the woman, so that it became necessary for her to give them meat. When Coyote and the wolf arrived there in the evening they found all the people there already. The weasel, the hawk called wakhwukh, and others had dressed themselves finely in order to marry her, but she would not have it. 

Finally all of them said: "Let us go home." 

They went, but Coyote lay there, apparently sick with fever and chills, and unable to walk. The woman said: "You go too." 

Coyote told her: "I am sick. I cannot. Perhaps later on I will be able." 

Then the woman made a fire inside the house. Coyote thought how he might enter it. He, too, had supernatural power. Then he wanted the wind to blow the house to pieces. He said: "Pu!" and a wind storm came. It began to tear the thatching from the house. The woman ran about trying to mend it but could not. 

Then Coyote said: "Give me the binding and I will tie it." 

She did not like to touch him, but to save her house she handed it to him. Now it was dark and rained. 

Coyote said: "I cannot sleep here. Let me sleep inside in the corner by the door." But she would not let him. 

He said: "I will die. If you wish me to freeze to death let me lie here." 

Then she allowed him to come in, and he lay near the door, shivering. She knew what he wanted. He was thinking: "I want to sleep with her." 

Then she said: "No, you cannot. You are no good." Coyote laughed. "How does she know what I think?" he thought. 

"I heard it," she said. Coyote lay there and looked over towards her. 

"What do you want now?" she asked. Then Coyote began to think of sexual intercourse with her. She did not like that. She was stronger than he and overcame him. He could not do anything to her. He went to sleep where he lay. Then at last the woman began to think of him. At once Coyote knew it in his sleep. He woke up and said: "You want mine! I have a good one!" 

She too was desirous now and let him lie with her. But though she allowed him to embrace her she would not let him come nearer. She wanted once more to try to overcome him. She went out as if to urinate, took a rattles snake, put it into herself, and returned. Then she spread herself and invited him. He knew what she had done. Also going out to urinate he by his supernatural power obtained a stick of hard wood (takha) from the cast. Putting it on himself he returned to the woman. He approached the stick, the rattlesnake bit it, lost its teeth, and was harmless. 

Lovers from Marie Lola Gedeon's gallery !!!!

Coyote said: "Ah! Now throw yours away and I will throw mine." She did so and he married her.


Coyote had one son from this woman, Wech, the Condor, who was to become a great gambler. At night they put the baby into water. After three days he could walk. Soon he was able to gamble. Then he was a man. Coyote was rich constantly making beads from bone and other materials, and encouraged his son to gamble. Then the boy went north. Then he saw a large owl, hihina, and wishing to kill him aimed at him. The owl, who was a doctor, was angry and flew up into a hollow tree. There he began to sing:

Hu hu hu 1 witcailac 2 min 3 put-onun 4

Hu hu hu 1, condor becomes 2 your 3 son 4.

As he sang this, the young man who had been so handsome began to have feathers all over his body. His female relatives who were with him tried to hold him, but they could not, and he turned into a condor. They said to Coyote: "Kill the owl before he changes him completely!" But Coyote only cried and did nothing. Now the young man Was entirely a condor. He shook himself, rose, and flew off. The women followed, but he flew away from them. Coyote returned. His wife knew what had happened. Then she took a rattlesnake once more. This time he did not know it, was bitten, and died.

Now the condor lived above and came down to earth to kill people for food. He thought of his mother, went to her, and brought her up with him. He tried to make her, too, eat people, but she would not do so. He brought two little boys and a little girl. These he kept as pets. He called them his dogs. 

As he was about to go off again he told his mother: "Feed them well. When I return I will eat them." 

When he was gone the woman said to the children: ''He will kill us all. He has nearly exterminated the people now. When he has finished them he will go hither up in the sky. Then he will come down and eat us. When he comes back you must shoot him." 

She gave the two boys bows and arrows. Then the condor came back from the earth below and went to drink. He drank half a day. The two boys shot at him, one from each side. For half a day they shot as fast as they could beginning as soon as he started to drink. The little girl kept dragging the arrows back to them and they shot them again and again. The condor never gave notice, but continued to drink. Now the half day was nearly over. The woman had made a hole. She put the children in, went in herself, and covered the hole. Then the condor stopped drinking. Now he began to feel something. 

Leaving the dead bodies he had brought with him, he started upward. His mother said: "If he flies straight, he will reach the place above, and it will be the end of us. But if he flies to the side and zigzags and falls, he will be killed." He flew straight up. He was already nearly out of sight. Then suddenly he shot to one side, zigzagged, dropped, struck, and was dead. They burned him. Then his eyes burst and flew out and were lost in the brush. If they had been able to find the eyes and put them back in the fire there would have been no condors in the world.

Then the woman and the little girl went down from the sky on a rope of down feathers, going through the hole in the sky through which the condor used to pass. The two boys went southward in the sky until they came to where the sky and the earth meet. There they descended to the earth. Then they came to people without mouths, who neither talked nor ate. They killed deer, roasted them, smelled of the meat, and threw it out-doors. In the same way they only smelled of their acorn mush. The two boys came to them, entered the house, took hold of the meat that was cooking, and began to eat. The people there made a protesting gesture, meaning. "Do not. It will come out from you," again indicating by a gesture. Neverthless {sic} the boys ate. 

Then they asked the chief: "Have you a tongue inside?" He shook his head. "Have you teeth?" 

Again he shook his head. Then they offered to try to cut open a mouth for one of them so that he would be like themselves and could eat. It was agreed and the two boys took obsidian and cut a mouth for one of those people. Soon the man could eat and talk. Then he said:

T-ipînii 1 panîii 2 tcicîii 3 nah'èii 4 lukînii 5 bidîkii 6.

Supernatural-ones 1 arrived 2, cut 3, ate 4, belly filled 5, defecated 6,

He spoke thus because he could not talk yet correctly. If he had spoken right he would have said:

T-ipni panac tcicîni nah'ac lokònoc

Then this man cut mouths for others, and they cut still others, and so they did to each other until all could eat and talk. The two boys returned home.

ABSTRACTS.

 Gashowu Yokuts. A woman, the hawk, lives alone and hides all the deer. The people hunt in vain. The wolf and Coyote find her and are given food. The people discover that their families are supplied with meat. The magpie, who has supernatural knowledge, informs the chief, the eagle. and the people all go to the woman, who is compelled to feed them. Many men wish to marry her, but all fail. They leave, but Coyote, pretending sickness, remains. By making a storm he persuades her to admit him into the house. She knows his thoughts and long resists his desires, but finally consents to marry him. She meets him with a rattlesnake, but is foiled by his use of a stick on which the rattlesnake is disabled.

The condor, the son of Coyote and the woman, is made to grow up quickly by being, immersed in water (cf. 34), and becomes a famous gambler. When traveling he aims at an owl, who, being a medicine man, sings and changes him into a condor who flies off. When Coyote returns his wife kills him with a rattlesnake. The condor lives in the sky, killing people for food. He carries up his mother and two little boys and a girl. He keeps the children to eat later. His mother instructs them. When he returns to drink for half a day and then to mount to the higher sky from which he will descend to kill them, they shoot at him. Half a day's shooting has no apparent effect and the woman and the children hide. The condor rises, but finally falls dead and is burnt. His eyes fly out, are lost in the brush, and turn to condors. The woman and the little girl return to earth on a feather rope. The two boys go south in the sky until they reach the earth. They come to people who can neither talk nor eat and who live by odor. The boys cut months and tongues for them and return home.

Indian Myths Of South Central California. By A. L. Kroeber.[1907] University Of California Publications American Archaeology And Ethnology Vol. 4 No. 4, and is now in the public domain.

NEZ PERCE COYOTE STORY

Coyote the Expeditioner  - Nez Perce 

Coyote [itsaya' ya] was building a fish ladder down the river. While he was busily engaged at this task, someone shouted to him, "Now why are you bothering with that? All the people have gone on the big expedition into the East Country." 

"Huh!" he said to himself. "I believe I will go, too. Why should I stay here?" He started for the East Country. He found as he went along traces of the people's camping, and evidences of such activities as ball playing, announcing of daily events, war dancing, and in fact every kind of merriment. He saw all these things as he followed. 

While going along, he suddenly came upon a lodge in a little meadow. "Well, who is his?" he said to himself. He crept up to the lodge cautiously. He was brimming with curiosity. He heard a moan come from within. He crept closer and came to the door-flap, thereupon he peeped through to behold a beautiful maiden ill in bed. 

Coyote quickly retreated. There, some distance from the lodge, he charmed himself by saying, "Let me become a very handsome man, finely clothed, and let me have a beautiful, spotted horse." Thereupon he became possessed of all these things. 

He went to the lodge again, approaching grandly and in all pomp, with the jingling of he bells and ornaments that he wore. When she heard his approach, the maiden inside rendered who could be coming to visit her. Now disguised, Coyote entered and said to the maiden, "What has happened to you?" He used the down-river accent to make his guise Bore effective. 

"I have a splinter in my foot, a buffalo horn," replied the maiden. 

"Well," said Coyote, "where are my friends the Eagle and others? He named those of great power. Why did they not doctor you? They are always claiming powers superior to mine. Why did they leave you in this pitiful condition?" 

"Well, my mother and father told me that if someone should come along and doctor me, and make me well again, he should become my husband," the maiden told him. 

"I see," said Coyote, "but there is a party of us; they are waiting for me there now. Being young men they are in a hurry, but perhaps they will sing for you briefly and then go long. They are in such a hurry." [He pretended that he was a great shaman.] 

Coyote went outside, walked away some distance, and then struck his hip with his fist to cause his children to tumble out ["yo '-x ox ox ox"]. At once these ten children began to fight fiercely among themselves. Coyote called for their fighting to stop and told them, "You are going to sing for me and beat sticks in accompaniment because there is a maiden ill abed." Thereupon they all marched into the lodge where Coyote placed himself at the maiden's feet while the others, from the opposite side, made a great din by their singing are beating of sticks ["wax-wax-wax-wax"]. 

Now Coyote began to work on the horn in her foot, tugging at it with his teeth. The splinter had already caused a big accumulation of pus and, suddenly now, as Coyote pulled out the horn, he was splattered with pus. Then, quickly, he blew his breath on the wound to cool it. 

. "Now, these boys are in a hurry," Coyote told her. "So let me see them off briefly that they may be on their way." All stood up in unison and went out. There outside Coyote told them. "Hurry, jump inside." He came back to the house quickly, and there he nursed her They stayed day after day until eventually her foot became much better. 

One day Coyote said to her, "Tomorrow we are going to move up and follow the main party " They went, and Coyote now had a wife. Far away they caught up to the party which had already crossed the divide into the East Country. The people had assembled in a great encampment. There Coyote asked them, "Where is my aunt, Mouse [laqatsya' ya], living?" 

"There, over there is their camp," they replied. So Coyote went, taking his wife to his aunt. He arrived there and asked, "Where is my cousin, Bear [xa' xats], camped?" 

"There," the Mouse told him. Such a splendid lodge Bear owned, set off in two-tone effect. 

Coyote now said, "Go to my cousin's lodge and fetch his hand-drum to me. 

"From such a dangerous one?" said the Mouse in alarm. 

"Why you are not even afraid of me! Why should you fear him? Hurry, get it for me!" Coyote insisted. All the people had great respect for Bear, and certainly, no one dared defy or to impose on him. 

"Such a nuisance Coyote makes himself invariably," thought the Mouse; nevertheless she went to Bear's lodge. There the Mouse sat, very much abashed, in the doorway of Bear's lodge and said, "I was only made to come by troublesome Coyote. He insisted that his cousin Bear lend him his hand-drum." 

Bear turned to his wife and said, "Give him yours." Each one had a drum. His wife gave her drum to Mouse who then carried it to Coyote. 

"Egad! Whose is it? His very own? No, it is a woman's," raved Coyote upon receiving the drum. "I wanted his very own-not my cousin's wife's. Hurry back and get the other one for me." 

She went back, looking very downcast and feeling most remorseful, to sit again by doorway of Bear's lodge. She told him, "He said that he does not want his cousin's wife but that you should lend him your very own." 

"What bother he talks; and it is always so. Here take this to him. What a nuisance has become." 

The Mouse took the drum and carried it to Coyote. "This is it; this is my cousin's own! What was he thinking to give me a woman's in the first place?" said Coyote. Now he lounged back, pillowed himself on the lap of his wife, and commenced playing and singing in an excessively loud voice. The people gathered around. All the people in camp crowded around. There he was, head pillowed on his wife and his eyes closed, playing and singing. 

From over in his lodge Bear could hear that the hand-drum had begun to sound strange, and he thought to himself, "What is this? Coyote is ruining my hand-drum." Coyote had been sprinkling the drum-head with water every little while. Bear ordered them, "Get my hand-drum! Coyote is spoiling it." 

When Coyote heard that Bear wanted his drum returned he, at once, became very angry. In his anger he threw it out of the smoke-hole of the lodge, and it happened to fall exactly into the smoke-hole of Bear's lodge. 

Bear became infuriated at this, but now the people told him, "They have exchanged his wife on him. He thinks that his beautiful wife whom he brought still sits there, and that he is pillowed on her lap. But awhile ago, they changed her around and put Lady Bullfrog [waxwaq'-lo' sana] in her place. It was a long time ago that they took his wife, while he was singing with his eyes closed. 

"It serves him right! He was becoming a nuisance," Bear replied. Here was Coyote reclining very comfortably. He happened to glance upward casually and suddenly beheld Lady Bullfrog with her big eyes blinking. "What are you doing here? So this is why the people have been laughing at me! Go away! So they exchanged my wife while I was reclining on her?" 

"Yes, nephew," replied Lady Bullfrog, "they had me sit here quite awhile ago. I don't know where they took your wife." 

Coyote now addressed all the people, "Not only am I indignant and hurt. Only a short time from now the human race comes, and many people will come on expeditions to this East Country. But on crossing the divide here, their wives will go wrong, will do foolish things. Even a quiet, well-behaved woman will come over the divide; yet she will go wrong here. Not only for myself am I indignant, for there is only a short time until the coming of the human race. 

Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949] 

CADDO COYOTE STORY

Coyote the Hungry – Caddo

NOW Coyote was always hungry, and as he was a coward. He used to sneak about the fields and timber searching for something to eat. One day, as he was walking by the side of a brook, he heard something in a Persimmon Tree. He looked up, and there was Opossum eating Persimmons. Coyote begged him to throw down some of the fruit, but Opossum only laughed and ate more Persimmons. He picked Persimmons, ate them with grunts, and then threw down the seeds at Coyote. This he kept on doing. 

By and by Coyote grew angry, but Opossum only laughed the more. He crawled out on a branch and dropped down as though he were going to fall into Coyote's mouth. And just when Coyote made a snap at him with his teeth, Opossum, instead of falling, wrapped his tail around the branch and drew himself up. This he did again and again. 

Well, Coyote grew more and more angry, then Opossum climbed out on a dry limb, and shouted: "Look out! Here I come this time! Catch me!" 

And sure enough, the limb suddenly broke, and down tumbled Opossum to the ground. Then Coyote gave him a hard beating, and, leaving him to die, walked away. 

But Opossum was only fooling, for he was not hurt at all. As soon as Coyote had gone a little distance, up jumped Opossum and climbed into the Persimmon Tree. Coyote turned around to see if Opossum was dead, and there he sat in the tree eating Persimmons, and throwing down the seeds, and laughing. 

Well, as Coyote was very hungry, he went on farther looking for something to eat. By and by he heard a noise as though a lot of people were having fun. He went toward the noise and saw a number of young Turkeys playing on a hillside. They were climbing into a bag, and rolling each other downhill. 

Coyote thought to himself, "Now is my chance to have a good dinner!" So he begged the Turkeys to let him get into the bag and roll downhill too. As the birds were good-natured, they put him in the bag, and rolled him down two or three times. 

Then Coyote told them that if they would all get in at once, he would roll them down hill. So every one crawled in, and Coyote, quick as a wink, tied the mouth of the bag tight, so they could not get out. Then he slung the bag on his back, and went home. 

 His four Coyote sons saw him coming, and ran to meet him. 

"You see this bag?" said he. "It is full of Turkeys, young and tender. Build me a hot fire, and we will have a feast." 

They built a fire, but there was not enough wood, so Coyote had to go to the timber to fetch some. Before he went, he said, "Be sure not to open the bag while I am gone." 

Well, the youngest son was very curious, and as soon as Coyote was out of sight, the youngster thought he would like to see what the Turkeys were doing. So he untied the string, and out jumped the Turkeys one and all, and flew gobbling away. 

When Coyote came back with the wood, he found all the Turkeys gone, and though he beat his youngest son, they had no Turkey dinner that day. 

On another morning, Coyote set out for the timber to get some food. He soon saw a wild Turkey sitting on a tree. Now the Turkey was fat, and Coyote licked his chops and said to himself, "I must have that fine bird for dinner." 

And as Coyote was a great liar, as well as a coward, he spoke to the Turkey, and said: "If you do not come down from that tree I will climb up and kill you. But if you will fly over the prairie I cannot hurt you there." 

The Turkey believed him, and flew toward the prairie, and Coyote ran after him. The Turkey flew high at first, but by and by he began to get tired, and there was no tree to light on. So he flew lower and lower, until he reached the ground, and then Coyote pounced upon him, and ate him. 

Now, while Coyote was licking the Turkey's bones, he looked back to see if anybody was watching, and he thought he saw a man standing just behind him with a big stick ready to strike him. 

Coyote was terribly frightened, and away he ran as fast as he could go every now and then turning around to see if the man was following. And each time he looked, he thought he saw the man close behind ready to strike. So Coyote ran faster and faster, thinking he must die; until at last his strength gave out. Then he thought he would fool the man, and he began to dodge from left to right, and right to left until he was so tired that he could not run any more. So he rolled on the grass and turned over on his back, begging hard not to be killed. After that he rolled over on his face, and as he did so he heard something crack in his head. He thought it was one of his teeth. But, no indeed, it was not a tooth! It was a long Turkey feather that had stuck between two of his upper teeth, and stood up behind his left eye. And when Coyote saw this, he knew that he had been fooled; for there had been no man behind him at all. He had been trying to run away from a Turkey feather ! 

Ever since that day, Coyote has been afraid, and his eyes are wild; and when he runs he always looks back to see if anybody is following. 

The Red Indian Fairy Book: For the Children's Own Reading and for Story-Tellers, by Frances Jenkins Olcott, with illustrations by Frederick Richardson, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. Public domain.