Once, Rabbit lived with Frog. Rabbit ran around hunting. He found a beaver lodge along a creek. He thought it was an evil cannibal emerging from the snow. Rabbit was really terrified. He ran home very frightened. Frog said to Rabbit, “Are you out of your mind? It was probably just a beaver lodge.” She told him, “Let’s go over there.” She told him to take his ice chisel along. They left.

Here was a beaver lodge standing there. Frog told her husband, “Let’s try to kill the beavers.” She told him, “Make a hole in the ice there.” Rabbit chiseled a hole in the ice. Frog ordered Rabbit to scoop out all the ice from the hole. Frog ran towards the hole and jumped in. Rabbit stood there and waited.

Frog surfaced and said, “Break open your beaver lodge now.” Rabbit broke open the lodge. Here were all the beaver that were in the lodge that she had killed. Both Frog and Rabbit dragged their beaver’s home.

Rabbit skinned the beaver and cooked them. After he had cooked them, he ate. Rabbit didn’t give any of the beaver meat to his wife, Frog. She told him, “Feed me.” He didn’t. Frog got annoyed and threatened him by saying, “Hey, I’m going to tell Owl that you’re not feeding me.” Rabbit still didn’t feed Frog. Frog got angry and said, “Owl, Rabbit isn’t feeding me his beavers.” They could hear Owl hooting. Now, Rabbit was really frightened. He gave Frog the beaver meat she was asking for. She said, “Owl, it’s OK. He is feeding me now.”

After living together for a while, I guess they finished off eating their beavers. Rabbit went to look for food again. He saw the large tracks of someone. He was really frightened again. Rabbit ran home. That is also why a rabbit is very cowardly today. He said, “I have seen the large tracks of someone.” Frog said, “It must be a moose because I had heard that a moose is walking around.” She must have heard that a moose was walking around. She said, “Let’s go track it.” They left.

It was the tracks of a moose. They tracked the moose. Then they reached it standing there. Frog and Rabbit creeped towards the moose. Frog told Rabbit, “Stand here.” Frog approached the moose. When she got close to it, she burrowed into the snow. She emerged at the leg of the moose. She carefully climbed up the leg and entered into the anus of the moose. She went to the heart of the moose and that was where she started biting and chewing at the heart.

Rabbit was just watching the moose standing there. Then the moose, who just stood there not noticing anything, suddenly collapsed. Rabbit just stood there. Then Frog emerged from the nostril of the moose. They butchered it and took all the meat home. They had plenty of food.

Then one night, they heard a cannibal screaming. They could hear the evil being coming closer. Then it reached them. Rabbit jumped into the food that was on the platform. That was where he hid. Frog jumped into the pot of blood. The evil cannibal barged into their lodge and began eating their food. Then Frog heard the cannibal enjoying itself as it ate her husband, Rabbit. The cannibal ate Rabbit.

The monstrous cannibal turned over the pot of blood where Frog had jumped in. She burrowed into the boughs and burrowed into the ground. The evil creature didn’t find out about her. It didn’t know where she was. Frog couldn’t be killed. That is how long the legend is.

Told by Florrie Mark-Stewart Eastmain
http://www.creeculture.ca/e/traditional/frogandrabbit.html

Fox one day met a Rabbit who was sewing a sack. “What do you intend to do with that sack?” asked he.

“I am making this coat to protect myself from being killed by the hard hail which we are going to have today,” replied Rabbit.

“My friend, you know how to make them; give me this coat and make another for yourself.”

Rabbit agreed to this, and Fox put on the sack over his head. Rabbit then hung him on a limb and pelted him with stones, while Fox, thinking it was hail striking him, endured the punishment as long as he could, but finally fell nearly dead from the tree, and looked out, to see no signs of hail, but discovered the Rabbit running away. Fox wished to avenge himself by killing Rabbit, and set off in pursuit of him.

When overtaken Rabbit was chewing soft gum with which to make spectacles. Fox’s curiosity was stronger than his passion for revenge. “What are you making those for?” said he.

“It is going to be very hot, and I am making them to protect my eyes,” answered Rabbit.

” Let me have this pair; you know how to make them and can make yourself another pair.”

“Very well,” said Rabbit, and he put the eye- shields on Fox, who could then see nothing, as the gum was soft and filled his eyes.

Rabbit set fire to the brush all around Fox, who was badly singed in running through it. The gum melted in the fire, and yet remains as the dark rings around his eyes.

Fox again started on the trail of Rabbit, with the determination of eating him as soon as he saw him. He found Rabbit sitting beside the opening of a beehive.

“I am going to eat you,” said Fox ; “you have tried to kill me.”

“You must not kill me,” replied Rabbit. “I am teaching these children,” and he closed the opening of the hive, so that Fox could not see what was inside.

Fox desired very much to see what was In the hive making such a noise.

“If you wish to see, stay here and teach them while I rest. When it is dinner time, strike them with a club,” said Rabbit, who then ran away.

Fox patiently awaited the dinner hour, and then struck the hive with such force that he broke into it. The bees poured out and stung him until he rolled in agony. “When I see you again, I will kill you before you can say a word!” declared he, as he started after Rabbit again.

Fox tracked the Rabbit to a small hole in the fence around a field of watermelons belonging to a Mexican. The Rabbit had entered to steal, and was angered at sight of the gum figure of a man which the owner of the field had placed beside the path.

“What do you desire from me?” he cried, as he struck at the figure with his forefoot, which stuck fast in the soft gum. He struck at the gum with every foot, and even his head was soon stuck in the gum. Thus Fox found him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “They put me in here because I would not eat chicken for them,” said Rabbit.

“I will take your place,” said Fox ; “I know how to eat chicken.”

The Mexican found him in the morning and skinned him, and then let him go, — still on the trail of the Rabbit who had so frequently outwitted him.

Frank Russell, Myths of the Jicarilla Apaches, 1898

In the old days Täwi’skälä (Flint) lived up in the mountains, and all the animals hated him because he had helped to kill so many of them. They used to get together to talk over means to put him out of the way, but everybody was afraid to venture near his house until the Rabbit, who was the boldest leader among them, offered to go after Flint and try to kill him. They told him where to find him, and the Rabbit set out and at last came to Flint’s house.

Flint was standing at his door when the Rabbit came up and said, sneeringly, “Siyu’! Hello! Are you the fellow they call Flint?” “Yes; that’s what they call me,” answered Flint. “Is this where you live?” “Yes; this is where I live.” All this time the Rabbit was looking about the place trying to study out some plan to take Flint off his guard. He had expected Flint to invite him into the house, so he waited a little while, but when Flint made no move, he said, “Well, my name is Rabbit; I’ve heard a good deal about you, so I came to invite you to come and see me.”

Flint wanted to know where the Rabbit’s house was, and he told him it was down in the broom-grass field near the river. So Flint promised to make him a visit in a few days. “Why not come now and have supper with me?” said the Rabbit, and after a little coaxing Flint agreed and the two started down the mountain together.

When they came near the Rabbit’s hole the Rabbit said, “There is my house, but in summer I generally stay outside here where it is cooler.” So he made a fire, and they had their supper on the grass. When it was over, Flint stretched out to rest and the Rabbit got some heavy sticks and his knife and cut out a mallet and wedge. Flint looked up and asked what that was for. “Oh,” said the Rabbit, “I like to be doing something, and they may come handy.” So Flint lay down again, and pretty soon he was sound asleep. The Rabbit spoke to him once or twice to make sure, but there was no answer. Then he came over to Flint and with one good blow of the mallet he drove the sharp stake into his body and ran with all his might for his own hole; but before he reached it there was a loud explosion, and pieces of flint flew all about. That is why we find flint in so many places now. One piece struck the Rabbit from behind and cut him just as he dived into his hole. He sat listening until everything seemed quiet again. Then he put his head out to look around, but just at that moment another piece fell and struck him on the lip and split it, as we still see it.

Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. From the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1897-98, Part I. [1900] and is now in the public domain.

Here is another version of the Cochiti “Contest for wives.”

Coyote got up early one morning feeling unusually full of pep. He trotted along the ridge of a wash just as the sun was beginning to appear on the distant horizon. as ran, he spotted a small, lumbering figure moving slowly below him. He loped down to see who it was and recognized Badger. “Greetings, brother!” he called. Quietly Badger wished him a good morning.

Coyote had already hatched a plot to get the best of Badger, so as the two paused to visit, Coyote said: “Brother, it’s such a fine day that we shouldn’t waste it just wandering around. Why don’t we have a contest and a wager? Let’s each spend the day hunting rabbits, and at sunset we’ll return to this spot with our catch. Whoever kills the most rabbits gets to spend the night with the other’s wife. What do you say, brother Badger?”

At first Badger did not think this was such a good idea, but fearing that Coyote would call him a coward, he accepted. As the two set out in opposite directions, Coyote felt there was no way he could lose. While he ran, he imagined how it would be to spend the night with Badger Woman. After a while he spotted a jackrabbit nibbling grass in a shady spot, and he took off after it, yelling “Yip! Yip! Yip!”

Now, this jackrabbit had also just emerged from his hole, and he too was full of pep on this morning. He led Coyote a merry day-long chase up and down washes, over hills, and through forests. Coyote was serenely confident, thinking, “This jackrabbit should be all I need to beat old Badger, so slow, so cumbersome, so near-sighted. I doubt whether he’d catch anything if he had a whole year.” In this fashion the day slowly waned.

Just before sunset Coyote finally wore the jackrabbit down and caught it. He hurried back to the rendezvous with Badger feeling quite sure of himself.

Meanwhile, Badger had hatched a plan of his own. Soon after their parting, he hurried to a system of rabbit holes that he knew were nearby, and at the first one he begin to dig with his powerful claws and muscles.

In short order he caught several half-asleep rabbits. By the time he made his way through the entire tunnel system, he had twelve of them. These he laid out in a row above the tunnels as fast as he caught them, so while Coyote was just getting into his jackrabbit chase, Badger already had twelve rabbits.

Badger leisurely took several trip to carry his catch to the rendezvous, and then he searched until he found a spot of shade to wait for Coyote. He was surprised when Coyote appeared, worn out and dripping with perspiration, carrying one jackrabbit. When Coyote spotted Badger’s catch, he realized that his trick had backfired. That night Coyote had to remain outside his own den while Badger made endless love to his wife. Throughout the night these love-making sessions were marked with howls of pain from Coyote Woman. Coyote didn’t sleep at all that night, and the next morning his wife, very sore from the exertions of the evening, said: “Old man! You think you’re so smart! You lose contests and I have to pay for your stupidity!”

Translated from the Tewa by Alfonso Ortiz.

He was walking (along) a road. He again saw a Rabbit lying on the edge of the road. As he went along quite close to it, he spoke thus: “Who’d meddle with a rock Rabbit?” he said.

That one was a real Rabbit but he paid no attention to it. He passed on right by it.

A little further on, he looked back. He saw that Rabbit jumping up.

Then he cursed himself: “No good Coyote! Child of a Coyote! He goes about without a bit of sense!” he said.

He ran after the Rabbit who had jumped up. He had run from him into a dead tree that lay there. (Coyote) lay toward (the hole in the tree). He tried again and again in vain to reach into the hole. (Then) he caught (hold of) the Rabbit.

Then the Rabbit spoke thus: “Oh my grandmother! Give me the knife! Right now I’m going to cut off his wrist!” he said, holding Coyote by the wrist.

Then Coyote also spoke thus: “Oh my grandmother! I beg of you, don’t give him the knife!” he said. Then (Rabbit) got away from Coyote.

Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts,1938, Harry Hoijer, principal author. Ethnological Notes by Morris Opler.
Told by Sam Kenoi