_Shuswap_
Once Coyote said, “I have never yet given a feast! Why should not I
feast the people?”
Coyote at once caught great numbers of sockeye and king salmon. He
made much salmon oil, and buried much roe. He filled all the skins
with grease. Then he sent messengers to invite all the people.
Coyote said to himself, “I will sing a great song, and dance for all
the people when they come. They shall think me a great man.”
Now when the people came they began to dance. And as Coyote danced,
one salmon which hung from the ridge pole kept striking his head and
catching in his hair until he was angry. Yet again it caught in
Coyote’s long hair, and he pulled and he pulled to get free, but he
only pulled his own hair. He became very angry. He pulled the whole
fish down and threw it in the river.
Immediately all the salmon came to life. They jumped off the poles
and ran to the river and leaped in. Coyote tried to catch some of
them, but into the river they jumped, every one of them. As he was
trying to catch the last one, he saw that all the oil had come to
life. It was running to the river. He tried to stop the oil, but it
was too late. And then all the salmon roe he had buried suddenly
jumped into the river.
Then all the people went home.
Soon after there was a great snowstorm. Coyote was snowed in and
without food for so long he nearly starved. The snow was nearly as
high as the trees all around Coyote’s house. Coyote thought, “This
is a very hard winter. The deer will all die.”
Now Coyote’s stock of dried fish and his roots had become exhausted.
He wondered what he should do. He said, “This is a very long
winter.”
Coyote went to the top of the ladder and looked around. The heat and
smoke had kept a little opening. The snow nearly hid the trees
around his house.
Now the very next day a snowbird came and perched above the smoke
hole. He gave Coyote a ripe berry, saying, “Why are you living here?
It is summertime.”
Coyote laughed and said, “Oh, but it is the middle of winter. See
the snow all around.”
Then again a snowbird came and gave him a ripe berry, saying, “See!
The berries are ripe, but you are still in your winter house.”
Coyote answered, “How can the berries be ripe and snow be still
almost to the tree tops?”
Four times the snowbirds brought him berries, and then Coyote
thought something must be wrong. He put on his snowshoes and
blanket, and climbed over the snowdrifts. Behold! As he came down on
the other side of the drifts, just a few feet from his house, it was
bare ground! Then he went on and came in just a little while to a
place where the trees were budding and a little farther they were in
full leaf. He passed down the North Thompson Valley and saw service
berries in blossom, and then came to bushes full of ripe fruit. Then
Coyote came to a large berry patch, and heard two Indian women
singing.
The summer time had come. That was the way in which the salmon took
their revenge upon Coyote.