Long ago people, all kinds of birds and animals were people then were living up to the north of here somewhere. Hawk people were humans then. They did not know that ga-n people were living down m the earth, below. Then Raven Old Man was there with the Raven people. He had children and one of these was a beautiful daughter. The ga-n people below knew about her. The old man and his family were in their wickiup. Soon they heard something drop outside. Raven Old Man heard it. “What is that, cibi’lsis (a buck-skin pouch hung over one shoulder and resting on the hip on opposite side) maybe ?” the old man said. The girl went out and found two pack rats. She brought them in and they ate them. Four days after this the old man heard something drop outside. “Go and see if cibi-Isis is there,” he said, though all the time he knew his own was in the wickiup. So the daughter went outside and found two rabbits. She brought them in and they ate them up. Four days after that they heard something drop again. “Go out and see if cibi’lsis is there,” the old man told his daughter. She went out and found two jack rabbits. “Here are two jack rabbits,” she said. “Well, bring them in and we will eat them,” the old man told her. Then four days later something dropped outside. The old man sent his daughter out to see if it was his pouch. When she got outside she found a black-tailed deer fawn. “Here is a black tail deer fawn” she said. “Well, bring it in,” the old man told her. So they did and ate it up. Four days after that something dropped once more outside. The old man sent his daughter out to see if it was his pouch. She went out and this time it was a black-tailed deer with two points on his horns. They butchered and ate him. Then four days later something dropped outside again. “What’s that, cibi-lsis ?” the old man said. He sent out his daughter and she found a big black-tailed deer. They butchered and ate him. Raven Old Man was very thankful for that. Four days after that the old

man heard something drop outside. He sent his daughter out. “See if this is cibi-lsis that has dropped there,” he told her. So the girl went out and found an enormous black-tailed deer, the kind that is all fat and in good shape, like you get in the fall. They butchered and ate it Raven Old Man was thankful for this.

Then Raven Old Man said to this daughter. “Well, daughter, this is what I have raised you for. We have eaten a lot of meat from someone. Build a new wickiup over to one side here and we will find out who it is who is doing this,” he told the girl. The new wickiup was built and standing not far off. No one was in it. The old man stayed with his family in their dwelling. Soon they saw  someone in the new wickiup. The girl went over there. She stayed there with that man. He was her man now.

After they had stayed together for quite a while, the man and woman went out for a walk together. Then the man told his wife, “I belong to the ga-n people.” Soon they came to a sulphur wheat bush. He started to kick it from the east side, then from the south side, then from the west and last from the north. The plant came up by its roots. In the hole that it left, the top of a spruce tree stuck up through. The man told his wife, “Step on this. Don’t be afraid.” But the woman shut her eyes and stepped on it. Then they found themselves way down below, where the ga-n people lived. After they reached the bottom, they started to walk to the place the man’s people were living. The woman had never seen people like this before. There were many of those people there. There were houses also, good ones. All kinds of farm crops were growing. There were corn drying racks.1 The crops were in all stages of growth; some were up just a little, some were half way up, some high and some harvested already. The woman’s husband had many sisters and so she had a lot of sisters-in-law. The man’s mother was there. She tested her daughter-in-law. She gave her a metate and mano and some corn to grind. “Let’s see you grind some corn,” she told her. But this woman could not grind corn well. She ground it but could not break the kernels up. For this reason the man’s family did not like her. She was not strong enough and could not grind corn.

One day after they had arrived there, a ga-n came to them. He caught hold of the woman’s hair and held her head back. “I want to see my relative-in-law’s face. If she is pleasing I will go hunting for her,” he said. Several of the ga-n did the same way. The last one was Gray ga-n (the clown) and he said, “Well, she is all right. I will go hunting for her like the others.” The men who went hunting just brought in sinew. There was no meat, only a big pile of sinew there. Then one of the man’s sisters was sent with the woman to bring in a horse, so they could ride back to Raven Old Man’s place. In a short distance they came to some bears. The woman saw them and was frightened. She started to run away, but her sister-in-law called to her, “Come back here. They won’t harm you. They are good ‘horses’. They are gentle.” But the woman would not listen and ran back to the camp. Her sister-in-law got the ‘horse’ and led it back. They saddled it up for the man and his wife. The woman’s mother-in-law told her, “Don’t look back on your way out. Don’t look back till you get on top. Don’t think why this is. I don’t want you to look back. Don’t do it!”

The woman got on the bear, but her husband did not go along with her. She rode to the top almost. Then she thought to herself, “I wonder why she didn’t want me to look back. I will try it.” So she looked back; just a glance. As soon as she did that the bear started to roll down the hill. Clear to the bottom they tumbled. The old woman saw it and ran to her. “I told you not to do that. Now why did you do it ?” she said. When she was going up she had had just a load of sinew, but now after the fall, it had all turned to meat and meat was scattered along the trail where they had fallen. The old woman carried the meat up to the top for her daughter-in-law. They packed the bear up again so that she could take it to her father. She went on alone from there, without her husband.

When the woman came close to her home, her mother, an old woman, saw her riding the bear. Raven Old Man and all his children became frightened and ran off from camp. “Don’t ride down this way,” they said. She unpacked the bear all alone, put the meat up and turned the bear back. But her husband got mad because he heard that his horse had been struck by someone up there. (Though mounts were sometimes beaten, this was infrequent and people spoke harshly of those who did it.) On this account he did not return for two days and nights. Then in two days someone was seen walking to the wickiup where this man had lived with his wife. Raven Old Man sent his daughter. “You better go over and build a fire,” he told her. She went over to her wickiup. The man, she found lying on the bed. He was very thin and bony, not like her husband. His legs and arms had white stripes about them, like those on a bob-cat’s tail. The woman went back to her father and told him, “That man is not my husband. He is too thin for that and besides he has white stripes about his legs and arms.” But her parents told her, “Maybe it is the same man and he has grown thin.” “Why should he have white stripes about his arms and legs ? I know it’s not he,” the woman said. Raven Old Man said, “Well, I believe he must have gone stalking antelope and has painted his legs and arms to look like an antelope.” “No, I know my husband better than you two. It is not he,” the woman said. She did not like this man, but her father sent her over to him and so she went, staying there all that night.

The next morning this man went hunting. When he came back he brought some dried meat. It had been roasted already. The following morning he went hunting again. Raven Old Man told his son, “Follow this man and see where he gets this dried meat. Don’t let him see you.” So the son did this. After the man had gone a way, his follower saw him stop and set fire to an old pitch-pine stump. On the side that the smoke blew, the man went. The snot started to run out of his nose and it was this he was taking and making into dried meat. The son came home and told his father about it. After that Raven Old Man would not eat any more of this dried meat. “That is why it was salty,” the old man said This man was from the Mosquito people. That is why he was so thin. All things were people in those days.

The man went to sleep with the woman that night. Her real husband from the ga-n, knew who it was that had his wife. On account of this he shot them with an arrow of red stone that night The arrow went right through both of them. The woman used to get up early, but she had not yet appeared at her father’s camp When the sun had risen high up, Raven Old Man sent one of his small daughters over to see what was the matter. She just looked inside the wickiup and thought that they were still asleep inside so she went back again. She told her father, “Well, they are still in bed. About noon, the little girl went over there again. She came back and told her father, “They are still in bed.” “Well go over there and uncover them,” he said. So the little girl went inside and took the covers off. When she did she saw that both of them had bled at the nose. When she came back and said that they were dead. Raven Old Man and his wife started to quarrel. “You know I told you he was not her husband.

You sent her over to him all the same. Now she is gone,” they accused each other.

Then the Raven people were no longer there where they had been living. But ga-n people were still living down below in the earth Many ga-n died down there. Though it is just as if they travel together with lightning, yet they died there. On account of this, ga-n people began to search for a place where they would not die; where there was life without end. From here on for a bit the story is dangerous to recount, but I have to tell it to you just the same. (It contains power and so is dangerous. Through the misuse of such power misfortune might befall those involved in the story telling.) They moved to a place halfway between the earth and the sky. There Mirage made an earth for them and they lived on this. But still they died there. They went through the sky to its other side but still they died there. From there they came down on earth to ntca’na-sk’id (a place somewhere about 35 miles east of Macnary Arizona)., Wherever they had lived above, they had always had their agricultural crops with them. These were their food- corn, beans, and squash.

Then there were a poor people living near that place (ntca’na-sk’id) the Hawk people. They were of the ‘iya”aiye clan. They were called Hawk people because the relatives of this clan are hawks. There were people of the na-dots’usn, bisza-ha, ndi’nde-zn and destcrdn clans there also. They were all a very poor people At dusk one day, they saw a light far off. They asked each other, Who is up there ? Who has made that fire ?” because everyone was at home and they could not think of who might be out there. They tried to mark the fire, so that they might go there in the morning and see what it was. This is dangerous, this story that I am telling you, but I tell it to you just as I heard it. It is very holy this part of the story, and if you or anyone should laugh at it, there ^danger of you or that person’s mouth and eyes going crooked. There is danger of this happening to me on account of telling this tale One time there were two men, one blind, the other lame. The blind one carried the lame one on his back. They came this way to a group of people. When the people saw them coming, they laughed at them. The blind man clapped his hands together and part of the people became blind. The lame man drew up his leg to his body and then part of them became lame. That is the way with this story. We must not laugh at it. It is the same way with the songs of the ga-n curing ceremony which have to do with this part of the story. (1)

The next morning these people sent one man over to where they thought they had seen the fire, but he could find nothing. Again that evening, after sunset, they could see the same fire. But the man who had been sent to investigate insisted that there was nothing over there. This time they cut a crotched stick and set it up in the ground. They layed an arrow in the crotch, pointing directly at the fire, so they would know just where it was in the morning. When morning came they looked to see where the arrow pointed. A man went over there to try and find something, but he could not find even a blade of grass that had been stepped on and bent, or a broken twig. It was two times that they had made trips to find this fire without results, but that evening they could see the fire again in the same place. They had left the arrow there from the night before, and it still pointed right to the fire. So in the morning they sent a man over to try and find something. He went and looked about for a long time, but found no ashes nor any blades of broken grass. Halfway to ntca’na-sk’id he went. “I have found nothing,” he told the people when he got home. The next morning they sent someone over to search for the fourth time. He went to the same place the others had been. Then after a short distance he stopped and sat down, for he saw many people there, and many crops of all kinds and in all stages of growth; some just up, some ready to harvest and so on.

The ga-n people saw this man, where he had dropped down in the grass. They talked among themselves: “Someone has been sitting over there for a long time. Let one go over there and see him.” So one went over towards him. He came as close as from here to the wickiup over there (20 yards). He did not say anything; just stood and looked at him. The man from the poor people had two eagle tail feathers sticking up in his hair. His privates were covered with the shredded inner bark of juniper. The ga-n went back and told his people, “That man has some inner bark from juniper to cover his privates.” “You better take back two buckskins with you, one for him to cover his shoulders with and one to wear about his waist,” they told him. So he took two buckskins over to the man and told him to wear them, one about his waist and one about the shoulders. The inner bark he had covering his privates he threw away. “Lets go back to my, people,” the ga-n said. They went. They gave this man some food: corn and squash. He had eaten of ga-n food now. After he had eaten, they talked to him. “Where did you come from?” they asked. The man pointed to where he lived. It was a long way back there. “Well, you are poor people. It’s not right that you stay there. You better come here and live with us. We have lots of crops just going to waste,” they told him. They gave him some corn and he started home with it. When he arrived, he had the corn with him and the people there ate it. This man told his people what he had seen. “I saw lots of people there. They were good. I have my belly full now. I ate all I wanted there and the chief of these people told me; ‘You better come and live with us, because you people are poor.’ He told me to tell this to you.” The man could not sleep that night for thinking of all the ripe crops he had seen and the food he had eaten. The people were  very hungry where he lived. They got up in the morning and moved away from tse-gots’uk (a place) where they had been

living. When they arrived at the new place, the crops were all given to them. “Let them eat all they want,” the ga-n said. They did eat all they wanted and now they had big bellies.

Thus these two peoples had lived for a long time together. Their children had become acquainted. The men went hunting together. The children played. They let them eat all they could from the farms, for the crops on them grew the year around, in all four stages, from just sprouting to ripeness. These people were the ga-n and Hawk peoples. I know the place they lived. I passed through there when I was a soldier in the U. S. army, on the way to Ft. Wingate. The children played together and some ga-n children became sick from the hawk illness. Their eyes became swollen and closed, they scratched like hawks and their faces were white like that of hawks. Then the Hawk children became sick from the ga-n. They became unable to walk, as if paralyzed.(These are the symptoms of hawk and ga-n sickness.) The two kinds of children were able to cure each other by one touching the other where it hurt. When they did this they became well immediately. But the ga-n chief heard about it and did not like it. The ga-n had . found the place where there was life without end. That is why they had spread these sicknesses among the people, because they had found a good place. Then Talking ga-n was chief. He went up on top of ntca’na-sk’id every morning and talked to the people from there. “We have done nothing here for a long time. It is better that we go to tse-nodo-z surrounded by fire and tse-na-sbas surrounded by fire (places). Here it is as if we were herded together in a pasture. We would like to have some meat. We want to move to a place where people never die.” That night they all collected together to talk it over. They gathered this way every night from there on.

All the ga-n people were divided into different kinds, just as we are divided into various clans. There were Black ga-n, ga-no-wan (meaning unknown), He Carries Pitch, Yellow ga-n. Weak ga-n, Hairy On One Side Of His Face, Big ga-n. Red ga-n, Hump Backed ga-n, and Gray ga-n. All these had daughters. They wanted to know who would leave his daughter behind. They asked each one if he would let his daughter stay behind with the Hawk People, but all liked their daughters too well for this. So it came back to Black ga-n, who was like the chief of these people,2 “Well, I guess I will have to leave my daughter.” But he never told his daughter or anyone else that he was going to leave her. He made a doll of turquoise and one of white shell. He hid these before they were going to move.

The ga-n people spoke to the Hawk people. “We are going to leave you now. Look after our crops for us. We will be gone for sixty days. Then we will be back.” Now they left. When they had gone about half a mile, the mother of the daughter of Black ga-n said to the girl: “Did you put your doll in the burden basket ? Is it there?” “No, no doll here,” said the daughter. “Well, you better go back for it. We will go slow for you,” the mother said. So the little girl started to run to the camp. She found the doll right away and ran back to join her mother. There was a large lake ahead. She followed the trail of her people. In a little way the tracks came to the edge of the lake and all went into the water. A lot of grass had been trodden down by the people passing over it. The little girl went around to the other side, but could not find where they had come out of the lake. So she went back to the old camp. The Hawk people saw her and said, “What is that little girl doing over there ?” They went with her to the lake, but they could not find where tracks came out of the water. They took her home with them. Every day she went to try and find her mother.

The Hawk people raised this little girl among them. After quite a while all the crops were gone and the people lived as before. They fed the little girl on wild seeds. The ga-n had made the crops grow and ripen by their wish alone. The little girl stayed at a ndi’nde-zn camp (clan). They raised her. She was big now, old enough to marry. So the man who brought her up said, “I didn’t raise her for anyone else. It will be well for her to marry my son.” That is the way it happened. After they had been married about a year, she bore a baby boy. The day he was bom ga-n people came down from above and filled the wickiup. It was overcrowded, but ga-n said, “He never stops eating (even though full),” and this way more kept crowding in and shoving over to make room for others. The baby was the grandson of Black ga-n, who was lying outside, on his back. The ga-n picked the baby up and passed him from one to the other. Last of all they took him out to his grandfather. There he danced the baby up and down on his chest and sang; “cawa cawa ca.”

Then he said to his daughter, “Well, daughter, here is deer medicine. Put it inside the hood of the cradle, by the baby.” But the baby’s mother said, “No, I don’t want it. You threw this baby away long ago” (meaning herself). So she gave the deer medicine to her husband’s mother. Black ga-n had brought the deer medicine so that when the baby grew up he could kill many deer. But instead of this the deer medicine was given to the ndi’nde-zn (the clan of the woman’s mother-in-law). On account of this ndi’nde-zn clan always used to kill big deer, very big ones, whenever they went hunting. This still was true up till about 1880, but there are hardly any of this clan left now. (Deer is also the ‘relative’ of this clan) Black ga-n gave his grandson a name; naba-dzisnda-he (captive taken in war), because the ga-n had left his mother behind among these other people who had raised her.

They lived on there. Then in a year more another baby was born to the woman. The ga-n people came there again, just as they had before. Black ga-n came there to see his grandson. He gave this second boy a name also, but I have forgotten it. Then the boys started to grow up. They were so high and about ten years old, big enough to hunt birds. In the morning they went hunting. At sundown they returned home. After spending the night there, they went hunting again. Sometimes they would be gone for two days, sometimes for three or four. Then one man among the Hawk people became sick. They came to the mother of the boys about it. “My female relative-in-law, I wonder if you have anything to say that will cure this sick man. You might have something,” they said. “I don’t know anything. You people have known me since I was a little girl, left here and raised by you. If I knew something I could go ahead and say it over that sick man now, but I don’t,” she told them. Finally she said, “Well, ask those two boys. They are gone for a day or sometimes three or four days at a time. I believe they go to the ga-n, because they are relatives to them. You people better go after a deer. Run the deer down, don’t shoot him. Bring the hide home and make buckskin of it.

Then get some downy eagle feathers and turquoise. Tie these to the forehead of the buckskin and put it on the boy’s foot. See what they will say.” So they went hunting and got a big deer by running it down. When the deer was all in, they caught it without shooting, as there must be no arrow holes in the buckskin. They killed it, cut it down the belly and by the next day they had made it into a buckskin. Then they put turquoise and a downy eagle feather on its forehead and placed it on the foot of the eldest of the two brothers. But he threw it to his younger brother, “Here is the one,” he said. The younger brother threw it back to the other, saying, “You can do it.” They did this several times and finally one said, “All right.” When they had agreed to what the people asked of them, the boys told them, “Fix up a place; level it up so that there are no uneven places on the ground. We want a spruce tree put on each of the four sides and a pile of wood on each side also. Don’t be afraid of anything you see, or run away.” They knew that the people might fear the ga-n. “For the sick man, spread a buck-skin and let him sit on it. Tie him all over with strips of yucca leaves and let him sit there.”

Then it was sundown and now it was dark. All the people came to the dance ground. Lots of fires were all about it. Then the boy who had consented, started to sing.

“Holy power, here sounding (making a noise).”

As he sang they saw lightning appear over ntca’na-sk’id on the east side, then on the south side, then west and then on the north side. Then from the four directions the bull roarer sounded. It shook the earth and the earth rumbled back in response. The people saw the flashes of lightning and thought they were far off, but soon the ga-n came down, upside down they were, feet up and head down. They picked up the sick man who sat there, and tossed him from one to the other. (The idea of the sick man being ignominiously tossed about greatly amused the listeners) Before, no man was sick, but this man became sick and from then on there were sicknesses. That night the sick man was cured. The ga-n left at dawn. One of the two brothers went with them. I don’t known which of them it was.

Only one of the boys remained among the people.

When the ga-n arrived back at their home, they came together and talked about the youths and maidens. “We have many girls and boys here. Those people whom we left have many boys and girls also. It is not right for us to marry among ourselves. We better go there and get some of their boys and girls,” they said. Then Black ga-n’s grandson (the brother remaining among the people) was going to make another dance at ntca’na-sk’id. This time it was to be only a social dance. The ga-n people came to this dance. It was just for pleasure and was not dangerous as it had been before. Then as the dawn came, the dancers were raised up off the ground. Many youths and maidens from among the ga-n and Hawk peoples were dancing. The old people ran under them and said to their sons and daughters, “Come down, come back,” but they kept moving upwards. Soon they were so high they could not hear the singing any longer, only the sound of the drum. Then they could not hear the drum any more. The people below lay on their backs in order to look upwards. They could see the dancers there like specks in the sky. They saw them a little while, then saw them no more.

This is how the good people were taken up above, to the place where life has no end. Both the brothers were gone now. The woman who was their mother went off for something and never returned. This is the end of the story. This is the way that the ga-n curing ceremony started.

Told by Francis Drake
Taken from Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache by Grenville Goodwin, 1934

Coyote had a black belt with red fringes. He also had a turkey feather cap with two eagle feathers sticking up. He was traveling with his daughter. They came to a river and started across, wading. Coyote said to his daughter, “Your dress will get wet, so lift it up a little way.” The girl did this. Pretty soon Coyote said again, “Lift your dress a little higher, it will get wet,” and the girl did so.

Then he kept on telling her to lift it a little higher until she had the dress up to her belly. Then Coyote looked and saw his own . She looked pretty good to him. When they got across the river, they went on to Coyote’s camp.

Then Coyote pretended to get sick. He lay down as if he was in a very bad way. Then he made believe he was going to die. This was all in one day. He said to his wife, “I am dying now. Over where they are playing hoop and poles there will be a man standing, right at one end of the course. He will be dressed just as I am now. That is the man I want my daughter to marry. After I am dead, wait and destroy the wickiup over me. I was always afraid of rocks.( Probably refers to burial under rocks, the customary way.) Then leave some red paint beside me.” When he got through talking, he made believe he died. His children started to cry for him. They destroyed the wickiup on top of him and went off leaving him there.

Just as soon as they had left. Coyote jumped up, crawled out from under the wickiup and ran to the place where they were playing hoop and poles and stood there. He got there before his family did. Then he saw his wife and children coming. His wife talked with her daughter. “There is the man you are to marry ” she said, “Go and fix up a new wickiup for yourselves ” So they went and fixed up a new wickiup for the man and the girl That evening the man and the girl went to the wickiup and lay down together. That way Coyote lay with his own daughter all night He was married to her now.

Next day his wife said she was going to wash him up with yucca. Coyote had some lice in his hair and he told her to look for them Coyote also had a mole on the back of his head. He laid his head on his daughter’s knees and she started to pick off lice. After a while Coyote fell asleep there. Then the girl came to the mole on the back of his head. When she saw this, she thought, “This is my father. She slipped herself out from under Coyote quietly so as not to waken him, and then stepped easily over to her mother’s camp. When she got there, she said, “My mother, that man I have been married to is my father. I know because of that mole on the back of his head.” Then the old woman got mad all right. She said He was dead over there a long time ago.” She took up a big rock and went over to where Coyote was lying asleep. Just before she got ready to throw the rock on him, he jumped up. “It seems to me you are not glad to see me, my mother-in-law,” he said to his own real wife. What’s the matter, mother-in-law, what are you trying to do? His old wife said, “You were dead long ago over there, and now. Coyote, you marry with your own daughter. You had better not stay around here any longer. Go some other place!”

Coyote started off and came to another camp where they were playing hoop and poles. “Look, here comes the man who married his own daughter,” they said. Coyote turned around and started off in another direction. The next camp he came to they said, Mere comes the man who married his own daughter,” and Coyote turned around again. Then he went a very long way to a camp far off. When they saw him, they said, “There is that man who married his own daughter,” and Coyote turned back. Then Coyote started to wonder who it was who was telling everyone about him. “Wind, you’re the one who is talking about me,” he said. Then he climbed up a hill where wind was blowing. When he got there he put his hand back and spread his backside apart with his finger. The wind blew inside it and he closed it again. Then Coyote traveled on to another camp and no one said anything to him. He said to himself, “I knew you were the one doing this, Wind.” (Listeners often exclaimed in disgust over Coyote’s incestuous ness.)

Told by Francis Drake
Taken from Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache by Grenville Goodwin, 1994

Long ago, when all the animals were talking like people, Coyote was living. He was traveling along. It must have been summer time then. As he went along, he said, “I wish I was traveling with wet sand under my feet.” When he said that, under his feet the ground was wet. A little further on he said, “I, wish I was traveling on muddy ground, so it would squeeze up between my toes.” When he said this, he was traveling in mud. A little further he said, “I wish I was traveling in water up to my knees,” and right away he was going along in water up to his knees. Later on he said, “I wish I was traveling in water up to my belly,” and then he was traveling in water up to his belly. Now he said, “I wish I was traveling in water up to my neck,” and when he said that, he was traveling in water to his neck. Pretty soon he said, “I wish it would come to my ears,” and then it came to his ears. Coyote was on his way to some people’s camps. He said, “I wish the water would carry me to where those camps are,” and the water carried him along to where the people from the camps he was going to came down to get their water.

When Coyote got there, he gathered some tl’o'ts’o-z (a grass) and stuck some in his anus, in his ears, nose, mouth and eyes. Then he lay down. This way he was just pretending that he was dead, as if the water had washed him up there, so the Jack Rabbits would come close to him and he could catch them.

Then two Jack Rabbit girls came down to get some water. They saw Coyote lying there and stopped. “We all thought Coyote was like a white man. But here he is now, lying dead, with lots of worms in his anus and his mouth, ears, eyes and nose. So we are just as well to go near and look at him.” They thought the tl’o”ts’o-z was worms. “If we make a dance around him, he will come alive maybe.” The Jack-Rabbit girls said this just for fun because they thought that at last Coyote was out of the way and would make them no more trouble. Now they sang, “Jack-Rabbit stops and squats quickly,” and danced as if they were pushing him. They sang and danced about him because they were glad he was dead. Then all the Rabbit People came there, because they heard the girls singing. They sang and danced back and forth in front of Coyote.

All kinds of Rabbit people and Rat people and Bird people, all the ones that Coyote was always after, felt good because they thought Coyote was dead. Next came Wood Rat and he sang, “I’m going through iron arrow points and that’s why I have sore places on my belly.” That’s the way he sang to Coyote as he danced. Then Rock Squirrel came next and sang, “I’m always thinking about that North Country and I’m lonesome for that rocky point I know up there,” all the while he was dancing to and from Coyote. Now Chipmunk came and sang, “When that big Coyote is on the ground, I always hide and whistle,” as he danced back and forth in front of Coyote. After him came Mouse and danced in front of Coyote and sang, “I am inside the camps. I have broad ears and sharp eyes that shine bright.”

Then all the small animals all over the earth were glad because they thought Coyote was dead. They all came there and danced and sang. Black Tail Deer came there and danced and sang also. He sang, “I’m a big deer, I go to water and stick my muzzle in the water till it comes to my eyes.” Then Dove came and sang and danced back and forth in front of Coyote, “I pick up my red shoes and put them on,” he sang. Then Mearn’s Quail sang and danced, “Spotted quail, I’m spotted on the belly, my hair is cut short to my ears, no tail I have,” he sang in front of Coyote. Next was Gambel’s Quail “I always walk against the hill,” he sang as he danced back and forth to Coyote. Now Red-shafted Flicker, “Red-shafted Flicker you might as well go home now,” he sang as he danced. Pretty soon Skunk got to that place. He was on Coyote’s side and sang to him, “My cross-cousin, wake up and bite lots of these birds and we will taste them again.” He kept on singing, “I will squirt my water in the bird’s eye and we will taste them again.” When Skunk sang this way, Coyote jumped up and ran around, trying to bite the birds and animals. But he did not get any at all. Then he chased one cottontail. After a long way Cottontail went in a hole. Coyote got to the hole and looked in. He hollered down it, “My cross-cousin, I want you to come out before I set fire to you with sulphur wheat.” Then Cottontail said, “That bush is my feed.” “All right, then I will set fire to you with tl’o'didjige (a grass),” Coyote said. Cottontail answered him, “That’s my good feed.” “All right then I will set fire to you with pitch,” said Coyote. “That one is not my feed,” answered Cottontail. “I’m going off to get some pitch and I want you to wait for me there till I get back,” Coyote said. Coyote had to go far off to get pitch, and after he had gone. Cottontail came out. He threw his moccasins back in the hole and said to them, “If Coyote comes back here, I want you to talk to him, my soles,” and then Cottontail left there. After a while Coyote came back with the pitch and hollered down the hole, “Are you still there, my cross-cousin ?” “Here I am,” Cottontail’s moccasins answered. “I’m going to set fire to you with pitch now,” Coyote said, and he started in to build a fire in the hole with the pitch. When he got the fire started, he said, “My cross-cousin, has that melted pitch run down to you yet ?” “No, not yet,” the moccasins answered. Coyote waited a while and then said, “Has that melted pitch run down on you like water now?” “A little way yet,” the moccasins answered. In a little Coyote hollered, “Is the pitch on your body yet V There was no answer this time, so Coyote said to himself, “It is on him now, sure,” and he started in to dig. He dug hard and finally came to where Cottontail’s moccasins were. When he found these moccasins had holes in their soles, he threw them to one side and went on.

After a while Coyote came to a tree. Right there somebody had set up a rabbit hide filled with sand to fool Coyote because they knew that Coyote was not smart and was crazy. That’s why they had done it. When Coyote got close, he saw the stuffed rabbit skin. He jumped on it and grabbed it, biting and chewing on it. Then he found out he was chewing sand, and it was all over the inside of his mouth. “This is a sand rabbit. I don’t want this,” he said, and he threw it away. Now his teeth hurt. He kept on his way and after a while a rabbit came out in front of him. He saw it, but he said to himself, “I don’t want any sand rabbit,” and he wouldn’t even look at it. This was a real live rabbit though. In a while Coyote got to where he saw a rabbit lying underneath a yucca plant. He did not take care about the yucca leaf points, but just made a jump for the rabbit. The leaf points stuck all in his chest and he never got the rabbit. Some time after that Coyote came to life again. When he was a little stronger, he looked down on the ground and saw his own blood there. “What’s the matter with that rabbit. He must have lots of blood,” he thought.

He got up and kept on his way. Then he saw a bird sitting on a tree. He wanted to catch this bird and eat it up. The bird said to Coyote, “I’m cold, my cross-cousin, I’m freezing, and I’m poor also. I want you to put me under your arm pit so my fat will get warm. Then you can suck the grease out of my body.” Coyote took this all in and put the bird under his arm. Now the bird was getting warm and it said, “My cross-cousin, don’t squeeze me so Lift up a little.” So Coyote raised his arm a little. When he did this, the bird was good and warm and flew away. He lit in a tree close by. Coyote went over there and said, “My cross-cousin, come down here,” but the bird would not come, so Coyote went on his way. Further on he came to Locust, who was resting on a tree limb.

Coyote picked him off and was going to stick him in his mouth, but just before he did it, Locust said, “My cross-cousin, don’t eat me up right away. Take me to where there is a crack in the ground. When I get good and warm is the best time to suck out my grease, and while you are doing that I will dance around your lip and go in your mouth. I want you to understand this.” So Coyote took him over to where the ground was cracked and laid him down there. Then Locust told him, “Here is where I’m going to tell you a good story, so put your head down near me and listen. Before you eat me, lay me on this crack, open your mouth and close your eyes. This is the best way to eat me, and when I am hot you can suck all the grease out of me. Then while you are doing that, I will dance around your lip. That’s the way you will chew me.” Coyote listened to all this and believed it. Now Locust stood on Coyote’s hips and danced and sang, “I am Locust, I am Locust.” “Make your mouth wide,” he told Coyote, and Coyote did. Now Locust was getting good and warm, but he still kept on singing and dancing Then he was hot, “tc’id, tc’id, tc’id,” and he flew right into the crack in the ground. Coyote snapped at him, but missed. Then Coyote said, “I was going to eat that bug a little while ago.”

My yucca fruits lie piled up.

Told by Bane Tithla
Taken from Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache by Grenville Goodwin, 1934

Coyote was always in trouble. This was long ago when our people and animals and birds lived together near White people. Coyote was going around among the camps visiting. He would stay in one camp a while and then move on. Then he stayed at Bear’s camp. From there he used to go to the White man’s camps and fields and steal wheat. He went at night and took the ears off the wheat, carrying them away. Every night he was doing this. The White man who owned the farm found out what Coyote was up to and trailed him from where he had stolen the wheat. When he located the path by which Coyote had come, he went back and all the White men held a council as to what they should do and how they should catch Coyote. They made a figure of pitch, just like a man, and stood it up by the trail where Coyote used to go into the field. That night Coyote went back to steal wheat again. When he got to the field, he saw the pitch man standing there. Coyote thought it was a real person and he said, “Gray Eyes,” he always balked like a Chiricahua, (This is the Chiricahua name for Whites, according to Western Apache, Frequently narrators in speaking Coyote’s parts assumed a marked nasal voice which they say is a Chiricahua speech characteristic. It is done to make Coyote the more ludicrous. Relations with the Chiricahua Apache were not always friendly, as may be surmised.) “get to one side and let me by to the wheat.

I just want a little. Get over I tell you.” He was close to the pitch man now, but the pitch man wouldn’t move. Then Coyote said, “You won’t move ? If you don’t move over, I will hit you with my fist and knock you over. Wherever I go on this earth, if I hit a man once with my fist, it kills him.” Coyote thought this was a real man “All right, then I’m going to hit.” He did and his fist stuck fast in the pitch, clear to his elbow. “What’s the matter? Why have you caught my hand? Turn loose. This other hand is worse yet. If I hit a man with it, it knocks all his senses out.” Then Coyote struck with his other fist and this arm got stuck in the pitch also. Now he was just standing on his two hind legs. “What’s the matter t I’m going to kick you now because you hold me this way.

If I hit you, it will knock you over.” Then Coyote kicked and his leg went into the pitch and stuck. Now he was standing on one leg only. “This other leg is worse yet and I’m going to kick you with it,” he said. He kicked, and his leg stuck into the pitch. AH his lees were held fast in the pitch and only his tail was left free. This tail of mine, if I whip you with it, it will cut you in two. So turn me loose ” But the pitch just held him. He struck with his tail and got it stuck also. Only his head was free. He was still talking with it, “Why do you hold me this way ? I will bite you and if I do I will kill you. You better turn me loose before I do. I will bite your neck.” But the pitch did not listen to him. He bit it and got his whole mouth stuck and there he was.

In the morning the farmer came, put a chain around Coyote’s neck and lead him back to the house after he had taken him out of the pitch. When he got to the house, he said to his family, “This is the one who has been stealing from me.” The White people held a meeting as to what they should do with Coyote. Then they decided to put Coyote into a pot of boiling water and scald him.

So they filled a pot with water and set it to heat, tying Coyote up to one side, by the house. Pretty soon Coyote saw Gray Fox coming along. Gray Fox was loafing around the house, looking for something to steal from the White man. He saw the pot boiling on the fire. Coyote called to him, “My cross-cousin, come here. I want to tell you something,” Gray Fox started to come. He did not know Coyote was tied up. When he got there he saw Coyote was fastened. Then Coyote said, “My cross-cousin, there are lots of things cooking for me in that pot,” though the pot was only to scald him in. “There are potatoes, coffee, bread, and all kinds of food for me. They will soon be ready and they are going to bring them to me. You and I will eat them. We will eat lots. For this reason I want you to put this chain around your neck while I go and urinate behind that bush. Fox said all right and he took the chain off Coyote, putting it on his own neck. Coyote left and when he got behind the bush, he ran off.

After a while the water was good and hot and the white men came to where Gray Fox was tied. “This one is little. What’s the matter ? He must have shrunk, I guess,” they said. (The gray fox is a smaller animal than the coyote.) They lifted him up and threw him into the hot water. His hair came out. Now Gray Fox was all red and without hair. They took off the chain and threw him under a tree. Gray Fox stayed there until evening as if he was dead. When it got dark and cold that night, he became conscious again. He woke up and said, “I must have slept very hard.” Then he got up and started off. After a while he got to Bear’s camp and asked Bear, “Where is Coyote V Bear said that Coyote always went for his water just a little way above, at some springs.

“Coyote always comes there at midnight,” Bear said. Gray Fox told what had happened (he tells Bear all). “I let him put the chain on me and then he never came back. That’s why I am chasing him. If I see him, I will kill him.” Bear told him to go to the spring and hide, so Gray Fox hid himself there at midnight. Coyote coming to the spring, knew that Gray Fox’s body would be all red. When Coyote got close, he said, “I see something red. I want to get a drink of water, but what is that red thing ?” Gray Fox just kept still. When Coyote put his head to the water to drink, he intended to jump on him- Coyote started to drink and Gray Fox jumped and caught him. Gray Fox said, “Now I’m going to eat you up and kill you.” The moon was in the sky and it was shining down into the water. Coyote saw it and said, “Don’t say this to me. Don’t talk like that. This in the water (the moon’s reflection) is ‘ash bread (A corn batter wrapped in corn husks and steamed in a shallow pit.) and it’s good to eat. If we drink all the water we can take it out and eat if for ourselves.” Coyote was fooling. They both started to drink and kept on. But Coyote soon merely pretended to drink. Gray Pox drank lots. When Gray Fox was fall of water, he got cold. Then Coyote said, “My cross-cousin, some White people left a camp over here and I’m going to look for some old rags or quilts to wrap you up in. Wait here for me.” So Coyote started off and as soon as he was put of sight, he ran away.

It was near morning now and Gray Fox got mad. He started off on Coyote’s trail. As he went along, he talked to himself, “If I see you again, right away I will eat you up.” He had drunk lots and so while he was trotting, he kept breaking wind, “gul, gul, gul, gul.” He didn’t know what the noise could be, so he stopped and listened. “That must be White people coming after me,” he thought. He started on again but kept listening and looking back. He couldn’t see anything. After a long way he came to a place some White people had been camping. He thought he would look for some old gunny sacks. Then he saw Coyote. “Coyote is the one I am looking for,” he said and he planned as to how he could get close to Coyote. Finally he sneaked up on Coyote and caught him. “I’m going to eat you up. You fooled me many times,” he said. Then Coyote said, “Don’t talk that way, my cross-cousin. I’m here looking for a sack. About tonight or tomorrow the ocean is going to come all over the earth and so I’m going to get inside a sack and tie it up over my head in order that the water will wash me up on dry ground. Why do you want to eat me when the ocean is going to come over the earth ?” Gray Fox believed Coyote about the ocean, so he said, “All right,” and let go of Coyote. Then Coyote said, “My cross-cousin, look for a good sack over there and if you find one, go inside it and tie the mouth up. If the ocean comes, we will float on top of it and when it sinks again, we will come back on the ground and start all over again.” Gray Fox started to look for a sack. Pretty soon he found one and Coyote said, “You might just as well get in that sack now, because the ocean is close. I will tie you in. I want to do this for you and then I will do the same for myself.” So Gray Fox crawled in the sack and Coyote sewed the mouth tight. While Gray Fox lay in the sack, Coyote looked about for a big rock. Finding one, he lifted it up and let it drop on Gray Fox. He aimed for Grays Fox’s head, but he missed. Then he ran off. Gray Fox had his senses knocked out, but after a while he woke up, tore a hole in the sack and got out. Then he said to himself, “I will get Coyote.”

Gray Fox looked for Coyote all over the mountains. At last he found him sitting under a large rocky point. He came up on him and grabbed him. “Now I’m going to eat you up,” he said. Coyote said, “What’s the matter with you. You are not very smart and don’t understand things well.” Lots of clouds were in the sky and Coyote said, “I want to explain this to you. My cross-cousin, something bad is going to happen to us. That sky is going to fall down. All the people on this earth know it and are sitting under rocks. But I guess you could not have heard about it yet. They have been warned about sky.” Gray Fox believed him. Coyote told him to watch out, as the sky was falling. “Try to put your hand against this rock here.” Gray Fox did this and Coyote told him to wait, that he was going to urinate. When he got in back of the rock, he ran off. Soon, Gray Fox looked for him and saw that he was gone. Coyote went off to some other camps. But Gray Fox was still searching for him.

While Coyote was at the camps, he and Bobcat decided to go together to a place far off, where a White man was making some whiskey. They arrived at this place and Bobcat went to the White man to get him to come out of the house. While the White man was gone from the house, Coyote went in, stole the whiskey, and both he and Bobcat ran off with it. When they had gone a short distance, they stopped to drink the whiskey. After they had taken some, they commenced to feel good. Then Coyote said, “My cross-cousin, I feel good; I would like to holler.” “No, we are still close to those White men. They might hear you,” Bobcat said. “I won’t holler loud, my cross-cousin,” Coyote said. They stayed there, arguing and drinking and then Coyote wanted to holler again, but Bobcat said no. “I’ll holler quietly,” Coyote said. “All right then, holler quietly,” said Bobcat. Coyote intended to holler softly, but he slipped and hollered loudly. The White men were looking for these two and they heard Coyote. They went all together to the place they had heard the voice. Bobcat was always smart and so he hadn’t drunk much. He only felt good, but Coyote was really drunk. The White people surrounded them. Bobcat got up and jumped over the first White man. The second jump he went right over all the rest and got away. They came to Coyote and arrested him, putting chains on his legs, and took him to town. Later on Bobcat use to visit Coyote once in a while. Then on one visit, they arrested Bobcat also. They had them both locked in the guard house for quite some time.

One day, out in front of the jail, some white men were breaking horses. The two prisoners looked out and watched them. The horse they had they tried to saddle, but no one could get close to it. Then Coyote told the guard, “If I were they, I would saddle that horse up right away.” The guard went over and told the others what Coyote had said. Then they said, “All right, we’ll see. Tell him to come out here.” They let Coyote out. He went to the horse and did lots of things to it. He knew horse power and this was why the horse wasn’t wild any more.(Men with horse power used it on bad horses to gentle them.) After he saddled the horse, he got on and rode it. Coyote thought he would fool these White people. He kicked the horse gently with his heel, but it wouldn’t move. Coyote was thinking it would be nice to have a good saddle with taps and saddle bags. He told the White people to put on such a saddle. They brought out a brand new one with everything on it, just as he wanted. He put it on and mounted, but the horse wouldn’t move because he Just kicked it gently. The horse would go all right, but Coyote planned on fooling the White people. Then Coyote said, “This horse is thinking about a nice white bridle and bit and lines, all covered with silver. He wants to wear it.” The horse wanted to go but Coyote kept holding him in. They brought a fine bridle, as Coyote had wished, and put it on the horse. Then Coyote got off the horse and said, “I want you to fill the saddle bags fall of crackers and cheese. That is why this horse won’t go. He wants this. Also, I want to wear a good white shirt and vest and big show hat, and a pair of white-handled pistols in a belt. That’s the way the horse wants it. Good silver spurs, the horse wants these also.” They brought all this equipment and Coyote dressed in it. They filled the saddle bags. Now he got on the horse. Ahead of him by the gate were some American soldiers. He kicked the horse and started right for the soldiers as fast as he could. He made it look as if the horse was running away with him. The soldiers moved back and he went through them. They followed him, but he never was caught. Now they knew how he had fooled them and they looked all over for him.

Later he was traveling on foot again. I don’t know what he had done with his horse. He knew where some White people were living who kept two good white horses. He went there because he wanted to steal these. Early in the morning he arrived and drove out the horses. He herded them to the top of a mountain. The White man who owned them looked for them, but couldn’t find them. Later Coyote took these horses to some other White people, because he thought he was going to sell them. Just before he got there, he stopped and built a big fire. When it had burned down, he painted the two horses all black with the charcoal. After he had done this, he took them to the White man’s house and told him to put the two black horses in the shed so they wouldn’t get wet if it rained. He was afraid the color would wash off. “All right, I’ll put them in the shed,” the White man said, and he gave Coyote lots of money for them. Coyote took his money up on the mountains where he lived. After a while it rained on the horses and the black was washed off them. Then they found out that these were the two white horses Coyote had stolen, so they started out after him. American soldiers were out after Coyote.

Coyote was sitting by a spring under a walnut tree. He knew the soldiers were after him. He swept all the ground clean under the tree and took his money, placing it up in the tree on different branches. When he finished, he sat there beneath the tree and waited. Pretty soon the soldiers came, and Coyote said, “I’m going to tell you a story about this tree. This tree has money that grows on it and I want to sell it to you. It takes all one day for the money to grow and ripen on it.” Then the soldiers said all right. Coyote told them, “I want you to give me all your pack mules if I sell this tree to you.” Coyote was always thinking about food, and he thought there would be food in those packs. The White men said all right. “Well, today what grows in the tree is mine, but from tomorrow on, what grows in the tree will be all yours,” Coyote said. Then he got a big rock and threw it against the trunk. When he did this most of the money fell to the ground. “See, it only ripens at noon. You have to hit it just at noon.” He hit the tree again and the rest of the money fell to the ground. Now it was all on the ground and they helped him pick it up and put it in sacks. Then they turned all the pack mules over to him. He arranged it with the head officer so no one could say anything. (This reflects experience with Whites in which the Apache have learned that authority is strictly vested in one person whom other local officers, etc. must obey, a system considerably different from their own in which a chief did not enjoy unlimited authority.) Then he started off. Coyote traveled till sundown and all that night, to another country. The soldiers camped under the walnut tree and the next day they waited till noon. Then the officer told the soldiers to hit the tree, as it was time for the money to be ripe. They pounded on the tree but no money fell out. Then the officer told the soldiers to chop it down, cut it into lengths and split it, for maybe the money would be inside. They did this, but they couldn’t find even five cents. Coyote kept on his way. That night one of the mules got hungry and started to bray. He didn’t like this so he killed every mule that brayed. He continued till he had killed all of his mules. In the meantime the soldiers had gone back to the town. On his way Coyote came to a White man’s house and bought a burro from him. He was always thinking about how he could swindle someone. Now he had another plan. Returned to his old home in the mountains, he put a lot of money up the burro’s rear end; so much. Then he kicked the burro in the belly and all the money fell out behind. He tried it again and it worked as before. “This is the way I am going to do and I will sell this burro for lots of money,” he thought.

So he put his money in the burro’s rear end and started for town. When he got to town, he took the burro to the man in charge there and showed it to him. “This is a good burro. When he passes excrement money comes out of him. He does this every day.” Coyote always talked like a Chiricahua. “Let’s see this burro do it and we will know if it’s true or not,” the head man said. “All right, you will see for yourself. As long as this burro lives, he does this. The first money that comes out will be mine and after that the money will all be yours,” Coyote said. “All right,” they said, “this burro must be worth lots of money.” Coyote started to kick the burro in the belly and all his money fell out. He gathered it for himself. “Now it’s yours,” he said. They payed him lots of money and he went on his way. “Next day, at the same time, he will do it again,” Coyote had told them. So the following day when the time came they brought the burro out and got ready to get the money from him. They kicked him, but nothing came out. He merely broke wind. They kicked him all day till evening. Then they said, “We might just as well kill this burro and look inside him. So they killed the burro and cut him open, but there wasn’t a sign of money inside, nothing.

After this had happened, a whole bunch of soldiers came to arrest Coyote. They followed him and on their way they packed much grain and other foods. Coyote, living up on the mountain, thought of how he could fool them again. At that time, none of our people ever lied. Only Coyote lied. That’s the way Coyote taught us to lie and steal. Long ago we believed what a person said and that’s how Coyote was believed. On his way Coyote saw the soldiers coming. Right on the side of the mountain was a little ridge, all white, running down. Out on the end of this he sat, behind where the trail crossed it. While he was there, he passed his excrement on the ground. His straw hat was old now and he set it over what he had done. Soon the soldiers came to him. He spoke to them and said, “Right here I have found gold. I want you people to stay away. Move back now. This place is gold. You have never seen this before. It is sticking up right out of the ground. That’s why I put my hat over it. If you want to buy this gold I will sell it, but it is the richest gold. This is a good country here as well. What I want in trade for all this is your pack train.” “All right,” they said and they drove the pack train to one side. Then Coyote told them about the gold, “It’s right in here, but I don’t want you to lift that hat off it yet. If you do, it will turn into something else. If you do what I tell you, it will be all right. I’m going to drive the pack train over this ridge and then over another ridge. When you see me cross that second ridge, I want you to pick up this hat and you will find the gold.” Coyote started off, driving the pack train. The Americans waited for quite a while, watching him go.

Finally, they saw him go over the last ridge and out of sight. They lifted up the hat. When they did so, there was only his faeces, mixed with the grasshoppers and juniper berries he had eaten.

My yucca fruits lie piled up.

Told by Bane Tithla
Taken from Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache by Grenville Goodwin, 1934

One day Slim Coyote started out to Sun’s house. When he got there Sun was not home, but his wife was. “Where is my cousin Sun?” he asked. Sun’s wife said that he had gone out and was not home yet. Coyote saw Sun’s tobacco bag hanging up on the side of the house. “I came to smoke and talk with my cousin,” said Coyote, “so give me a smoke while I’m waiting. He won’t mind, he’s my cousin.” Coyote was talking to Sun’s wife as if she were his mother-in-law. She handed him the tobacco bag, and he used it to fill his own little buckskin bag. Then he quickly hid his bag and rolled a cigarette, so that he actually got off with a lot of Sun’s tobacco without her noticing. “Since my cousin hasn’t come back yet, I guess I won’t wait after all,” Coyote told her, and started home.

Pretty soon Sun arrived. “Who’s been here and gone again?” he asked looking at his depleted tobacco bag. “Somebody who said he was your cousin,” answered his wife. She told him what had happened, and Sun was very angry. “I’ll get that fellow,” he said. He went out front where he had Black Wind Horse tied, and saddled him up and set off after Coyote. Black Wind Horse could fly, and when he traveled he made a noise like lightning. A light rain started to fall and covered up Coyote’s tracks, but Sun could still follow the thief by the ashes from his cigarette. It kept raining, and pretty soon the tobacco Coyote had with him started to grow. Soon it was putting out leaves, then flowers. At last it ripened and dried, and the wind scattered the seeds everywhere. When Sun saw this, he gave up chasing Coyote and went home.

When Coyote got back to the Apache camp where he was living, he kept his tobacco for himself and wouldn’t give any away. The people kept asking him for a little smoke, but he said no. The Apache held a council on how to get Coyote’s tobacco away from him, and they decided to pretend to give him a wife.

“We’re going to give you a wife,” they told him, and Coyote said, “You’re trying to fool me.” “No we’re not,” they said, “we’re really going to give you a wife.” They set up a new wickup for Coyote, dressed a young boy as a girl, and told the boy not to let Coyote touch him till just before dawn. They made a bed in the new wickup, and Coyote felt so good that he gave all his tobacco.

Just about dusk the boy dressed as a girl went over and sat down beside Coyote in his new wickup. Slim Coyote was so excited he could not stand up but just crawled around on the ground. “Why don’t you come to bed?” he said to his bride. “Let’s hurry and go to bed.” But the boy just sat there. After a while, when Coyote was more and more impatient, the boy lay down by him but not close to him. “I want you to lie close,” Coyote said, and tried to touch the boy. But the boy said, “”Don’t!” and pushed Coyote’s hand away.

This kept up all night, until just before dawn Coyote made a grab and caught hold of the boy’s groin. He let go right away and jumped back. “Get away from me; get back from me; you’re a boy, not a girl,” he said. Then Coyote got up and called the people. “You lied to me,” he said. “You don’t give me a wife at all. Give me my tobacco back!” But no matter how loudly he yelled, they wouldn’t do it. This is the way the people first got tobacco.

Based on a legend by Grenville Goodwin in 1939