Coyote Loses His Eyes - Apache / Jicarilla

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Coyote Loses His Eyes - Apache / Jicarilla

[1]Coyote took out his eyes and threw them up. They fell back again. Some time after, when he was walking through the woods and happened to be under a tree, he did this. His eyes caught on the tree. He went away again in this direction. Someone made eyes for him out of yellow pitch and cautioned him, "You must not lie in the sunshine." Coyote, however, did lie in the sunshine and the pitch when it became warm ran down on each side of his nose. That is the reason Coyote has marks from each eye down his checks. The eyes that Coyote threw into the tree became plums.[2]

Footnotes:

[1] Matthews' account obtained from the Navajo has considerable detail, pp. 89-91. This story has wide distribution: Teit, (b), p. 632; Russell, (b), p. 215; Wissler and Duvall, p. 29; Kroeber, (a), p. 70; (b), p. 168; and p. 50; Mason. p.314; Stevenson, p. 153.

[2] This sentence was obtained at the end of text 35, out of its connection.

Jicarilla Apache Texts, by Pliny Earle Goddard; New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. VIII; [1911] and is now in the public domain.

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Coyote Loses His Eyes - Navajo

Coyote was walking along one day when he saw some small birds playing a game. They were sliding down a hillside on a rock. As they slid they removed their eyes and tossed them up into the treetops.

Then they said, "My eyes, come back," and the eyes returned to them.

Coyote watched them for a long time. He decided he wanted to play that game.

He trotted over to the players and said, "I want to play that game, too. Please take my eyes out."

"No," they all said, and went on playing.

Coyote kept begging to be allowed to play. The fourth time he asked them they said he could play.

They removed his eyes and handed them to him. As he slid down the hillside he tossed them into a tree. Then he called out, "My eyes, come back to me."

They came back into his hands. Coyote was very excited and wanted to play again.

The small birds warned him, but he wouldn't listen; and the fourth time he slid down the hill the eyes did not come back when he called to them.

"Where are my eyes?" he cried. "Tell me, where are my eyes? I can't go anywhere without eyes."

"We warned you not to play this game," the birds told him, but they felt sorry for him.

"We could make him some eyes," one of them said. "Let's go get some pitch."

They went to the forest and gathered pitch from pine "trees,, and they pressed it into Coyote's empty eye sockets.

After a while. Coyote could see again. And he disappeared, happy that he could use his new eyes.

Not far away, some people were celebrating and feasting. Coyote, who was hungry, swiftly approached the crowd and asked to help cook the food. They agreed; so he joined the people and assisted with the cooking. In that way he hoped to get something good to eat.

As he went close to the fire, however, his eyes began to melt. He became worried and tried to keep away from the heat. But the people urged him to stay near the fire so that he could help cook.

Coyote faced away from the flames while he tried to turn the meat cooking in the hot coals, and he grabbed a red hot piece of wood, burning his hand. He dropped the coal and yelled.

The people wondered why Coyote was afraid to get near the fire and why he picked up a hot coal. Then they noticed that Coyote's yellow shining eyes were made of yellow pine pitch, and Coyote jumped away from the people and ran off.

That is why coyotes even today have yellow eyes.

Taken from Coyote Stories of the Navajo People, Navajo Curriculum Center Press, 1974 School Board, Inc. Rough Rock Arizona.

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Coyote's Eyes - Pima

When Coyote was traveling about one day, he saw a small bird. The bird was hopping about contentedly and Coyote thought, "What a beautiful bird. It moves about so gracefully."

He drew nearer to the bird and asked, "What beautiful things are you working with?" but the bird could not understand Coyote. After a while the bird took out his two eyes and threw them straight up into the air, like two stones. It looked upward but had no eyes. Then the bird said,

"Come, my eyes. Come quickly, down into my head." The eyes fell down into the bird's head, just where they belonged, but were much brighter than before.

Coyote thought he could brighten his eyes. He asked the bird to take out his eyes. The bird took out Coyote's eyes, held them for a moment in his hands, and threw them straight up into the air. Coyote looked up and called, "Come back, my eyes. Come quickly."

They at once fell back into his head and were much brighter than before. Coyote wanted to try it again, but the bird did not wish to. But Coyote persisted.

Then the bird said, "Why should I work for you, Coyote? No, I will work no more for you." But Coyote still persisted, and the bird took out his eyes and threw them up.

Coyote cried, "Come, my eyes, come back to me."

But his eyes continued to rise into the air, and the bird began to go away. Coyote began to weep. But the bird was annoyed, and called back, "Go away now. I am tired of you. Go away and get other eyes."

But Coyote refused to go and entreated the bird to find eyes for him. At last the bird gathered gum from a pinon tree and rolled it between his hands and put it in Coyote's eye holes, so that he could see.

But his eyes had been black and very bright. His new eyes were yellow.

"Now," said the bird, it "go away. You cannot stay here any longer."

Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest Compiled and Edited by Katharine Berry Judson, 1912

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Coyote's Eyes Are Replaced By Buckeyes - Caddo

One time Coyote was out hunting something to eat, and on his way he heard a noise and he said to himself, "I think those are some Turkeys that escaped from me some time ago. They will not get away this time, for I will kill them before I get home." And so he made up his mind to go and see what they were doing, and to catch them. When he went to the place, he found Ducks playing about in the water. When they saw Coyote coming they knew him at once, for they had often heard about him. They came out of the water and stood on the bank, and when he came up they asked him if he would like to play with them. He said, "Yes, that is just what I want to do, and I will show you some of my tricks after you show me some of yours." They debated what to play, and one of the Ducks spoke up and said: "We will play in the water. We will take one man and take his eyes out and let him dive into the water just as long as he can hold his breath, and as soon as he goes under the water we will throw his eyes into the water after him, and when he comes out from under the water his eyes will be in their place. How do you like that?" the Duck asked Coyote. "That is all right," said Coyote. "Well, we will commence now." The first Duck had his eyes taken out, and then he dived into the water and his eyes were thrown in after him, and when he came up he had them in their place. Then another took his turn, and so on until every one of the Ducks had tried, and then Coyote's turn came. His eyes were taken out and thrown into the water after him, and he came out with his eyes in their place. The Ducks were given power to do most anything that they wanted, but they had the power to do each thing only once. Coyote wanted to try the trick once more, but the Ducks did not want him to try it again, for they knew that their power was limited to one time. Coyote kept begging them, and finally the Ducks let him try the trick again, and so they took his eyes out and he dived into the water. The Ducks knew that they could not put the eyes in place again, and so they flew away and left Coyote. While he was going along he was talking and crying. He was asking some one who had greater powers than he to help him out of his trouble and to give him eyes again. Finally a man found him and he told him that he would help him all he could, and told him to wait there until he returned. He went off to find something with which to make Coyote some new eyes. He was gone for a while, and when he returned he had some green buckeye balls.

He told Coyote to be brave once more, that he was going to hit him where the right eye was with the buckeye ball, and then where the left eye was with another ball, and then he would be able to see; and so he did, and thus Coyote's eyes were restored.

Traditions of the Caddo, By George A. Dorsey, collected 1903-1905, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington