and led the blind Coyote along. In the mean time they devised a plan
for getting rid of him. When they got home they took the rattling
dress of Tsiké Nazi'li and gave her an ordinary garment to wear. Then a
Chicken-hawk took the dress in his beak, and, flying a little distance
above the ground, shook the dress in front of Coyote. The latter,
thinking the maiden was there, approached the sound, and as he did so
the Chicken-hawk flew farther away, still shaking the dress. Coyote
followed the rattling sound, and was thus led on to the brink of a
deep canyon. Here the hawk shook the dress beyond the edge of the
precipice. Coyote jumped toward where he heard the sound, fell to
the bottom of the canyon, and was dashed to pieces.
244. But for all this he did not die. He did not, like other beings,
keep his vital principle in his chest, where it might easily be
destroyed; he kept it in the tip of his nose and in the end of his
tail, where no one would expect to find it; so after a while he
came to life again, went back to the camp of the birds, and asked
for Tsiké Nazi'li. They told him she was gone away, and ordered him
angrily to leave, telling him they knew who he was, and that he was
a worthless fellow.
245. Coyote left the camp of the birds, and wandered around till
he came to the house of one of the anáye, or alien gods, named
Yélapahi,[71] or Brown Giant. He was half as tall as the tallest
pine-tree, and he was evil and cruel. Coyote said to the Brown Giant,
"Yélapahi, I want to be your servant; I can be of great help to
you. The reason that you often fail to catch your enemies is that
you cannot run fast enough. I can run fast and jump far; I can jump
over four bushes at one bound. I can run after your enemies and help
you to catch them." "My cousin," responded Brown Giant, "you can do
me service if you will." Coyote then directed the giant to build
a sweat-house for himself, and, while the latter was building it,
Coyote set out on another errand.
246. In those days there was a maiden of renowned beauty in the
land. She was the only sister of eleven divine brothers.[81] She
had been sought in marriage by the Sun and by many potent gods, but
she had refused them all because they could not comply with certain
conditions which she imposed op all suitors. It was to visit her that
Coyote went when he left Yélapahi at work on the sweat-house.
247. "Why have you refused so many beautiful gods who want you for a
wife?" said Coyote to the maiden after he had greeted her. "It would
profit you nothing to know," she replied, "for you could not comply
with any one of my demands." Four times he asked her this question,
and three times he got the same reply. When he asked her the fourth
time she answered: "In the first place, I will not marry any one who
has not killed one of the anáye." When he heard this Coyote arose
and returned to the place where he had left Yélapahi.
248. On his way back he looked carefully for the bone of some big
animal which Great Wolf had slain and eaten. At length he found a
long thigh-bone which suited his purpose. He took this home with him,
concealing it under his shirt. When Coyote got back, Yélapahi had
finished the sweat-house.[82] Together they built the fire, heated the
stones, and spread the carpet of leaves. Coyote hung over the doorway
four blankets of sky,--one white, one blue, one yellow, and one black,
and put the hot stones into the lodge. Then they hung their arms and
clothes on a neighboring tree, entered the sudatory, and sat down.[83]
249. "Now," said Coyote, "if you want to become a fast runner, I
will show you what to do. You must cut the flesh of your thigh down
to the bone and then break the bone. It will heal again in a moment,
and when it heals you will be stronger and swifter than ever. I often
do this myself, and every time I do it I am fleeter of foot than
I was before. I will do it now, so that you may observe how it is
done." Coyote then produced a great stone knife and pretended to cut
his own thigh, wailing and crying in the mean time, and acting as if
he suffered great pain. After a while of this pretence he put the old
femur on top of his thigh, held it by both ends, and said to the giant:
"I have now reached the bone. Feel it." When the giant had put forth
his hand, in the absolute darkness of the sweat-house, and felt the
bare bone, Coyote shoved the hand away and struck the bone hard with
the edge of his knife several times until he broke the bone, and he
made the giant feel the fractured ends. Then he threw away the old
bone, rubbed spittle on his thigh, prayed and sang, and in a little
while presented his sound thigh to the giant for his examination,
saying: "See! my limb is healed again. It is as well as ever." When he
had thus spoken Coyote handed his knife to Yélapahi, and the latter
with many tears and loud howls slowly amputated his own thigh. When
the work was done he put the two severed ends together, spat upon them,
sang and prayed, as Coyote had done. "Tóhe! Tóhe! Tóhe!"[84] he cried,
"Heal together! Grow together!" he commanded; but the severed ends
would not unite. "Cousin," he called to Coyote, "help me to heal this
leg." Coyote thought it was now time to finish his work. He ran from
the sweat-house, seized his bow, and discharged his arrows into the
helpless Yélapahi, who soon expired with many wounds.
250. Coyote scalped his victim, and tied the scalp to the top of a
branch which he broke from a cedar-tree; as further evidence of his
victory, he took the quiver and weapons of the slain and set out for
the lodge of the maiden. He knew she could not mistake the scalp,
for the yéi, in those days, had yellow hair,[85] such as no other
people had. When he reached the lodge he said to the maiden: "Here is
the scalp and here are the weapons of one of the anáye. Now you must
marry me." "No," said the maiden, "not yet; I have not told you all
that one must do in order to win me. He must be killed four times
and come to life again four times." "Do you speak the truth? Have
you told me all?" said Coyote. "Yes; I speak only the truth," she
replied. Four times he asked this question, and four times he received
the same answer. When she had spoken for the fourth time Coyote said:
"Here I am. Do with me as you will." The maiden took him a little
distance from the lodge, laid him on the ground, beat him with a
great club until she thought she had smashed every bone in his body,
and left him for dead. But the point of his nose and the end of his
tail she did not smash. She hurried back to her hut, for she had much
work to do. She was the only woman in a family of twelve. She cooked
the food and tanned the skins, and besides she made baskets. At this
particular time she was engaged in making four baskets. When she
returned to the lodge she sat down and went on with her basket-work;
but she had not worked long before she became aware that some one was
standing in the doorway, and, looking up, she beheld Coyote. "Here I
am," he said; "I have won one game; there are only three more to win."
251. She made no reply, but took him off farther than she had taken
him before, and pounded him to pieces with a club. She threw the
pieces away in different directions and returned to her work again;
but she had not taken many stitches in her basket when again the
resurrected Coyote appeared in the doorway, saying: "I have won two
games; there are only two more to win."
252. Again she led him forth, but took him still farther away from the
lodge than she had taken him before, and with a heavy club pounded
him into a shapeless mass, until she thought he must certainly be
dead. She stood a long time gazing at the pounded flesh, and studying
what she would do with it to make her work sure. She carried the mass
to a great rock, and there she beat it into still finer pieces. These
she scattered farther than she had scattered the pieces before, and
went back to the house. But she had still failed to injure the two
vital spots. It took the Coyote a longer time on this occasion than
on the previous occasions to pull himself together; still she had not
wrought much on her basket when he again presented himself and said:
"I have won three games; there is but one more game to win."
253. The fourth time she led him farther away than ever. She not only
mashed him to pieces, but she mixed the pieces with earth, ground
the mixture, like corn, between two stones, until it was ground to
a fine powder, and scattered this powder far and wide. But again she
neglected to crush the point of the nose and the tip of the tail. She
went back to the lodge and worked a long time undisturbed. She
had just begun to entertain hopes that she had seen the last of
her unwelcome suitor when again he entered the door. Now, at last,
she could not refuse him. He had fulfilled all her conditions, and
she consented to become his wife. He remained all the afternoon. At
sunset they heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and she said:
"My brothers are coming. Some of them are evil of mind and may do you
harm. You must hide yourself." She hid him behind a pile of skins,
and told him to be quiet.
254. When the brothers entered the lodge they said to their sister:
"Here is some fat young venison which we bring you. Put it down to
boil and put some of the fat into the pot, for our faces are burned
by the wind and we want to grease them." The woman slept on the north
side of the lodge and kept there her household utensils. She had
about half of the lodge to herself. The men slept on the south side,
the eldest next to the door.
255. The pot was put on and the fire replenished, and when it began
to burn well an odor denoting the presence of some beast filled the
lodge. One of the brothers said: "It smells as if some animal had been
in the wood-pile. Let us throw out this wood and get fresh sticks from
the bottom of the pile." They did as he desired; but the unpleasant
odors continued to annoy them, and again the wood was taken from the
fire and thrown away. Thinking the whole pile of wood was tainted
with the smell, they went out, broke fresh branches from trees, and
built the fire up again; but this did not abate the rank odor in the
least. Then one said: "Perhaps the smell is in the water. Tell us,
little sister, where did you get the water in the pot?" "I got it at
the spring where I always get it," she replied. But they got her to
throw out the water and fill the pot with snow, and to put the meat
down to boil again. In spite of all their pains the stench was as bad
as ever. At length one of the brothers turned to his sister and said:
"What is the cause of this odor? It is not in the wood. It is not in
the water. Whence comes it?" She was silent. He repeated the question
three times, yet she made no answer. But when the question had been
asked for the fourth time, Coyote jumped out of his hiding-place into
the middle of the lodge and cried: "It is I, my brothers-in-law!" "Run
out there!" the brothers commanded, and turning to their sister they
said: "Run out you with him!"
256. They both departed from the lodge. As Coyote went out he took
a brand from the fire, and with this he lighted a new fire. Then he
broke boughs from the neighboring trees and built a shelter for himself
and his wife to live in. When this was completed she went back to the
lodge of her brothers, took out her pots, skins, four awls, baskets,
and all her property, and carried them to her new home.
257. One of the elder brothers said to the youngest: "Go out to-night
and watch the couple, and see what sort of a man this is that we have
for a brother-in-law. Do not enter the shelter, but lie hidden outside
and observe them." So the youngest brother went forth and hid himself
near the shelter, where he could peep in and see by the light of the
fire what took place and hear what was said. The pair sat side by
side near the fire. Presently the woman laid her hand in a friendly
manner on Coyote's knee, but Coyote threw it away. These motions were
repeated four times, and when he had thrown her hand away for the
fourth time he said: "I have sworn never to take a woman for a wife
until I have killed her four times." For a while the woman remained
silent and gazed at the fire. At length she said: "Here I am. Do with
me as you will." (The myth then relates four deaths and resurrections
of the woman, similar to those of the Coyote, but it does not state
how or where she preserved her vital principle.) When she returned
for the fourth time she lay down, and Coyote soon followed her to
her couch. From time to time during the night they held long, low
conversations, of which the listener could hear but little. At dawn the
watcher went home. In reply to the questions of his brothers he said:
"I cannot tell you all that I saw and heard, and they said much that
I could not hear; but all that I did hear and behold was tsindás"
(devilish, evil).
258. Next morning the brothers proposed to go out hunting. While
they were getting ready Coyote came and asked leave to join them,
but they said to him tauntingly: "No; stay at home with your wife;
she may be lonely and may need some one to talk to her," and they
chased him out of the lodge. Just as they were about to leave he came
back again and begged them to take him with them. "No," they replied,
"the woman will want you to carry wood; you must stay at home with
her." They bade him begone and set out on their journey. They had not
gone far on their way when he overtook them, and for the third time
asked to be allowed to join the party; but again they drove him back
with scornful words. They travelled on till they came to the edge of a
deep canyon bordered with very steep cliffs, and here Coyote was seen
again, skulking behind them. For the fourth time he pleaded with them;
but now the youngest brother took his part, and suggested that Coyote
might assist in driving game towards them. So, after some deliberation,
they consented to take Coyote along. At the edge of the canyon they
made a bridge of rainbow,[86] on which they proceeded to cross the
chasm. Before the brothers reached the opposite bluff Coyote jumped
on it from the bridge, with a great bound, and began to frolic around,
saying: "This is a nice place to play."
259. They travelled farther on, and after a while came to a mesa, or
table-land, which projected into a lower plain, and was connected with
the plateau on which they stood by a narrow neck of level land. It was
a mesa much like that on which the three eastern towns of the Mokis
stand, with high, precipitous sides and a narrow entrance. On the
neck of land they observed the tracks of four Rocky Mountain sheep,
which had gone in on the mesa but had not returned. They had reason,
therefore, to believe that the sheep were still on the mesa. At the
neck they built a fire, sat down near it, and sent Coyote in on the
mesa to drive the sheep out. Their plans were successful; soon the
four sheep came running out over the neck, within easy range of the
hunters' weapons, and were all killed. Presently Coyote returned and
lay down on the sand.
260. In those days the horns of the Rocky Mountain sheep were
flat and fleshy and could be eaten. The eldest brother said:
"I will take the horns for my share." "No," said Coyote, "the
horns shall be mine: give them to me." Three times each repeated
the same declaration. When both had spoken for the fourth time,
the eldest brother, to end the controversy, drew out his knife
and began to cut one of the horns; as he did so Coyote cried out,
"Tsinántlehi! Tsinántlehi! Tsinántlehi! Tsinántlehi!" (Turn to
bone! Turn to bone! Turn to bone! Turn to bone!) Each time he cried,
the horn grew harder and harder, and the knife slipped as it cut,
hacking but not severing the horn. This is why the horns of the Rocky
Mountain sheep are now hard, not fleshy, and to this day they bear
the marks of the hunter's knife. "Tsi'ndi! Tsindás bilnáalti!" (You
devil! You evil companion in travel!) said the hunter to Coyote.
261. The hunters gathered all the meat into one pile, and by means
of the mystic power which they possessed they reduced it to a very
small compass. They tied it in a small bundle which one person might
easily carry, and they gave it to Coyote to take home, saying to him,
"Travel round by the head of the canyon over which we crossed and go
not through it, for they are evil people who dwell there, and open
not your bundle until you get home."
262. The bundle was lifted to his back and he started for home,
promising to heed all that had been told him. But as soon as he was
well out of sight of his companions he slipped his bundle to the
ground and opened it. At once the meat expanded and became again a
heap of formidable size, such that he could not bind it up again or
carry it; so he hung some of it up on the trees and bushes; he stuck
part of it into crevices in the rocks; a portion he left scattered
on the ground; he tied up as much as he could carry in a new bundle,
and with this he continued on his journey.
263. When he came to the edge of the forbidden canyon he looked down
and saw some birds playing a game he had never witnessed before. They
rolled great stones down the slope, which extended from the foot of
the cliff to the bottom of the valley, and stood on the stones while
they were rolling; yet the birds were not upset or crushed or hurt
in the least by this diversion. The sight so pleased Coyote that he
descended into the canyon and begged to be allowed to join in the
sport. The birds rolled a stone gently for him; he got on it and
handled himself so nimbly that he reached the bottom of the slope
without injury. Again and again he begged them to give him a trial
until he thus three times descended without hurting himself. When he
asked the birds for the fourth time to roll a stone for him they became
angry and hurled it with such force that Coyote lost his footing, and
he and the stone rolled over one another to the bottom of the slope,
and he screamed and yelped all the way down.
264. After this experience he left the birds and travelled on until
he observed some Otters at play by the stream at the bottom of the
canyon. They were playing the Navaho game of nánzoz. They bet their
skins against one another on the results of the game. But when one
lost his skin at play he jumped into the water and came out with a
new skin. Coyote approached the Otters and asked to be allowed to take
part in the game, but the Otters had heard about him and knew what a
rascal he was. They refused him and told him to begone; but still he
remained and pleaded. After a while they went apart and talked among
themselves, and when they returned they invited Coyote to join them
in their game. Coyote bet his skin and lost it. The moment he lost,
the Otters all rushed at him, and, notwithstanding his piteous cries,
they tore the hide from his back, beginning at the root of his tail
and tearing forward. When they came to the vital spot at the end of
his nose his wails were terrible. When he found himself denuded of
his skin he jumped into the water, as he had seen the Otters doing;
but, alas! his skin did not come back to him. He jumped again and
again into the water; but came out every time as bare as he went
in. At length he became thoroughly exhausted, and lay down in the
water until the Otters took pity on him and pulled him out. They
dragged him to a badger hole, threw him in there, and covered him
up with earth. Previous to this adventure Coyote had a beautiful,
smooth fur like that of the otter. When he dug his way out of the
badger hole he was again covered with hair, but it was no longer the
glossy fur which he once wore; it was coarse and rough, much like
that of the badger, and such a pelt the coyotes have worn ever since.
265. But this sad experience did not make him mend his ways. He again
went round challenging the Otters to further play, and betting his
new skin on the game. "Your skin is of no value; no one would play for
it. Begone!" they said. Being often refused and insolently treated, he
at length became angry, retired to a safe distance, and began to revile
the Otters shamefully. "You are braggarts," he cried; "you pretend to
be brave, but you are cowards. Your women are like yourselves: their
heads are flat; their eyes are little; their teeth stick out; they
are ugly; while I have a bride as beautiful as the sun." He shook his
foot at them as if to say, "I am fleeter than you." He would approach
them, and when they made motion as if to pursue him, he would take a
big jump and soon place himself beyond their reach. When they quieted
down, he would approach them again and continue to taunt and revile
them. After a while he went to the cliff, to a place of safety, and
shouted from there his words of derision. The Otters talked together,
and said they could suffer his abuse no longer, that something must
be done, and they sent word to the chiefs of the Spiders, who lived
farther down the stream, telling them what had occurred, and asking
for their aid.
266. The Spiders crept up the bluff, went round behind where Coyote
sat cursing and scolding, and wove strong webs in the trees and
bushes. When their work was finished they told the Otters what
they had done, and the latter started to climb the bluff and attack
Coyote. Conscious of his superior swiftness, he acted as if indifferent
to them, and allowed them to come quite close before he turned to
run; but he did not run far until he was caught in the webs of the
Spiders. Then the Otters seized him and dragged him, howling, to the
foot of the hill. He clung so hard to the grasses and shrubs as he
passed that they were torn out by the roots. When the Otters got him
to the bottom of the hill they killed him, or seemed to kill him. The
Cliff Swallows (Hastsósi)[21] flew down from the walls of the canyon
and tore him in pieces; they carried off the fragments to their nests,
leaving only a few drops of blood on the ground; they tore his skin
into strips and made of these bands which they put around their heads,
and this accounts for the band which the cliff swallow wears upon
his brow to-day.
267. It was nightfall when the brothers came home. They saw that Coyote
had not yet returned, and they marvelled what had become of him. When
they entered the lodge and sat down, the sister came and peeped in over
the portière, scanned the inside of the lodge, and looked inquiringly
at them. They did not speak to her until she had done this four times,
then the eldest brother said: "Go back and sleep, and don't worry
about that worthless man of yours. He is not with us, and we know
not what has become of him. We suppose he has gone into the canyon,
where we warned him not to go, and has been killed." She only said,
"What have you done with him?" and went away in anger.
268. Before they lay down to sleep they sent the youngest brother out
to hide where he had hidden the night before to watch their sister,
and this is what he saw: At first she pretended to go to sleep. After
a while she rose and sat facing the east. Then she faced in turn
the south, the west, and the north, moving sunwise. When this was
done she pulled out her right eye-tooth, broke a large piece from
one of her four bone awls and inserted it in the place of the tooth,
making a great tusk where the little tooth had once been. As she did
this she said aloud: "He who shall hereafter dream of losing a right
eye-tooth shall lose a brother." After this she opened her mouth to
the four points of the compass in the order in which she had faced
them before, tore out her left eye-tooth and inserted in its place
the pointed end of another awl. As she made this tusk she said:
"He who dreams of losing his left eye-tooth shall lose a sister."
269. The watcher then returned to his brothers and told them what
he had seen and heard. "Go back," said they, "and watch her again,
for you have not seen all her deeds." When he went back he saw her
make, as she had done before, two tusks in her lower jaw. When she had
made that on the right she said: "He who dreams of losing this tooth
(right lower canine) shall lose a child;" and when she made that on
the left she said: "He who dreams of losing this tooth (left lower
canine) shall lose a parent."
270. When she first began to pull out her teeth, hair began to grow
on her hands; as she went on with her mystic work the hair spread
up her arms and her legs, leaving only her breasts bare. The young
man now crept back to the lodge where his brethren waited and told
them what he had seen. "Go back," they said, "and hide again. There
is more for you to see."