Post by Okwes on Mar 28, 2007 11:58:52 GMT -5
Coyote Turns Into A Corn Mill - Caddo
The women made their corn mills from the trunk of an old tree. They cut a piece about two feet through and three or four feet high and hollowed it about twelve inches deep in one end. There they placed their corn and ground it to meal with a pounder. There were many of these mills, but one that was very old and smooth the women liked best.
One day a woman went to use the old corn mill, and as she pounded her corn she saw that it was diminishing too fast, and when she had it ground she saw that she had only a little. She gathered up her meal and said nothing, but watched the next woman pound her corn. It disappeared in the same way, and so did the corn of the third and the fourth women who came to use the mill. They all wondered what could be the matter with the mill, and they examined it carefully and saw that it was not the old mill that they had always used. One of the women cried out to get an axe and cut it and see where their corn had disappeared. As one of the women ran to get an axe the mill fell over and began to roll about, and Coyote jumped up from the place where the mill had been and ran away. Coyote had turned into a corn mill and hidden the old one so that he could get all he wanted to eat.
Traditions of the Caddo, By George A. Dorsey, collected 1903-1905, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
The women made their corn mills from the trunk of an old tree. They cut a piece about two feet through and three or four feet high and hollowed it about twelve inches deep in one end. There they placed their corn and ground it to meal with a pounder. There were many of these mills, but one that was very old and smooth the women liked best.
One day a woman went to use the old corn mill, and as she pounded her corn she saw that it was diminishing too fast, and when she had it ground she saw that she had only a little. She gathered up her meal and said nothing, but watched the next woman pound her corn. It disappeared in the same way, and so did the corn of the third and the fourth women who came to use the mill. They all wondered what could be the matter with the mill, and they examined it carefully and saw that it was not the old mill that they had always used. One of the women cried out to get an axe and cut it and see where their corn had disappeared. As one of the women ran to get an axe the mill fell over and began to roll about, and Coyote jumped up from the place where the mill had been and ran away. Coyote had turned into a corn mill and hidden the old one so that he could get all he wanted to eat.
Traditions of the Caddo, By George A. Dorsey, collected 1903-1905, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington