American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) (12 page)

{
Shasta
}

Once Coyote perceived two girls walking along the road; and he said to himself, “I should like to have these girls. I wonder how I can get them.” A small creek ran parallel to the road.

“I will go into the creek and turn into a salmon,” said Coyote. He did so, and pretty soon the girls came to the creek. Upon seeing the salmon darting to and fro, one girl exclaimed, “Oh, here is a salmon! Let us catch it!” So the girls sat down on opposite banks of the river, and the salmon swam back and forth, entering their bodies.

The elder girl said to her sister, “Do you feel anything queer?”

And her sister answered: “Yes, I feel fine.”

Thereupon Coyote came out of the creek in his true form, and laughed at the girls, saying, “You thought it was a salmon, but I fooled you.”

The girls were angry, and cursed him.

He kept on going downstream, and after a while he saw two girls digging camas on the other side of the river. He began to wonder how to get possession of them. He made his penis grow into a stalk going under the river and coming up on the other side like a plant. While the girls were bending over digging camas, the stalk entered between their legs. One of the girls then found a strange object on the ground and wanted to find out what the object was. So she looked around and saw a little stalk, which she tapped with her camas-digger.

Thereupon Coyote began to yell from across the creek, because the stalk was part of his own body, and it hurt him when it was struck. He pulled it back.

The girls, perceiving the deception, become angry and said, “It was that old Coyote who played this trick on us.”

There was a hill. Old Man Coyote lived on one side of it, Old Man Beaver and his wife lived on the other. So they were neighbors. They were friends, but Old Man Coyote loved to play tricks even upon friends. One day he went over to Old Man Beaver’s place. Beaver said: “Come in friend, sit down by the fireplace. Have a smoke.”

“Thank you, brother,” said Old Man Coyote. “I’ve had an idea—let’s you and I go out hunting rabbits. You go hunting over to the west, I will go toward the east. The rabbits I’ll catch I’ll bring to your wife. The rabbits you catch, you’ll bring to my wife.”

“All right,” Old Man Beaver agreed, “but why should I bring my rabbits to your wife, and why should you bring your rabbits to my wife?”

“Brother, I hate to say this, but you’re slow-witted. Don’t you get it? This way we will swap wives. Wife-swapping is fun. You’ll bring lots of rabbits to my wife. She will be so overjoyed that she will love to copulate with you. And your wife will be so glad with the rabbits I shall be bringing her, that, right away, she will want to sleep with me. This will be fun!”

“I never thought of this,” said Old Man Beaver. “Well, all right, I’ll get my rabbit stick.”

Old Man Coyote was always in the mood to copulate. He knew that Old Man Beaver was not as eager to do it. He did it only once in a while. Also Old Man Coyote knew that Beaver was not a very good hunter. How could he be, always swimming around in a pond and eating nothing but twigs and saplings? So Old Man Coyote was very sure of himself.

Old Man Coyote and Old Man Beaver went off to hunt early in the morning. Beaver Woman was full of anticipation. She was singing a little song:

Old Man Coyote came back very late. He had not caught a single rabbit. He went to Old Man Beaver’s house. Beaver Woman scolded him: “You braggart, always boasting of what a great hunter you are. You brought me nothing to eat. I won’t sleep with a no-good fellow like you. Get out!”

Old Man Coyote was not very happy. He went over to his own place. Old Man Beaver was already there. He had brought a whole sack full of rabbits. He and Coyote Woman had eaten their fill until they could not eat a single mouthful more. Old Man Beaver was already copulating with Coyote Woman. She was crying out loud: “Agh, agh, agh!”

Old Man Coyote was sitting outside, in front of the door, listening. He called out: “Oh, oh, brother Beaver, don’t hurt my wife!”

Coyote Woman called back: “Old Man Coyote, you fool! I’m crying because I like it!” Old Man Beaver and Coyote Woman did it several times. They couldn’t stop themselves.

Finally they were done. Old Man Beaver came out of the house. He told Old Man Coyote: “Brother, don’t complain. This was your idea!”

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Southern Ute
}

Coyote had two daughters and a son, a little boy. One evening Coyote was lying on his blanket. It was raining and the roof of his shelter was leaking. Water dripped on Coyote and he got wet. He told one of his daughters to climb up and fix it. While she was doing this he caught sight of her exposed vulva. Coyote became excited and amorous. He felt his penis stirring. He said to himself: “Oh, this looks nice and juicy. I want to copulate with her soon.” Then he told his other daughter: “Climb up there and fix the leak!” As she did so, Coyote got a glimpse of her vulva. “Oh, how lovely and red,” he said to himself. “I must copulate with her too.” The thought made his penis stand up. He thought: “How can I do this with these girls, my daughters? It is forbidden to a man to sleep with his own kin.” After a while he told himself: “Never mind, I’ll find a way.”

Coyote told his wife: “I am going hunting for rabbit.” He went out of his lodge. He thought: “My wife is getting old and ugly. It is no longer fun to copulate with her. It will be much more fun with my daughters.” He picked up a sharp, broken bone. He scratched his chest with it until it bled. He went home. He told his wife: “Woman, an enemy stabbed me. I am dying.” He fell down on the floor of the lodge.

His wife and daughters rushed to his side: “Oh, poor man, don’t leave us! Don’t die!”

Coyote told them: “It cannot be helped, I’m done for. Dear wife, dear daughters, after I am dead, wrap me in my blanket and put me on a woodpile. Burn me up. Then go to the next village and make a new life for yourselves. When you go, let none look back or something bad will happen.”

Coyote played dead. He made it look real. The women wrapped him in his blanket, put him on a woodpile, and set fire to it. “Let no one look back,” said his wife. Then they went away weeping.

The little boy looked back. He cried: “Father slipped out of his blanket. It’s only the blanket that’s burning.”

“How can you say such a wicked thing?” his mother scolded him. “Your poor father is dead.”

“I saw him roll off the woodpile,” said the boy.

“It was his ghost you saw,” said his mother. “Your father is dead. He is burned up.”

They all went to another village and put up a lodge there.

Not long after, a good-looking young man arrived at that village. The stranger was dressed in rich otter fur. He wore a hat made of otter skin. He had an otter-skin quiver slung over his shoulder. He was riding a fine gray horse. It was Coyote, who had the power to change himself into anyone or anything he wished. His wife, daughters, and little boy were sitting before their lodge. Coyote dismounted in front of them. Coyote said to his wife, who did not recognize him: “You look like a good cook. I have a lot of good-tasting buffalo-hump meat in my possible bag. Let’s cook it and have a feast!”

They all went into the lodge, cooked and ate the meat. Coyote’s daughters looked at the handsome stranger and thought that they would like to have him for a husband. Their mother thought that he would make a good son-in-law. Coyote told his wife: “You have two beautiful daughters. I wish to marry them.”

His wife told him: “I would be proud to have you as a son-in-law.”

Both daughters said: “I want him for my husband.”

The little boy said: “This man looks a lot like our father.”