Post by Okwes on Apr 9, 2008 17:23:22 GMT -5
Frog and Coyote - Nez Perce
There was a widow, Frog (wexwext), who was maltreated and became angry. So
she went up the river to the source, and sat over the fountain-head, so that
the entire river went dry. There was no water except in some deep holes.
Now, the people had not missed her; but Coyote (itseyeye) thought something
like this must have happened to make the river go dry. He went upstream,
because he knew the place where the water had been stopped. As he travelled
up the dry bed, he made five rafts, and placed them about five bends of the
river apart.
At the head of the river he saw a lodge. He was nearly dead of thirst when
he arrived; so he entered the lodge. Inside he saw a mountain-sheep-horn
bucket of water, and he said to the woman, "Pass that water over to me; I
have drunk a great deal of water along the river to-day, still I am very
dry." So he drank up all the water.
Coyote lay down on the opposite side of the lodge from the woman, and
covered his head with his blanket. But he had an eye-hole in the blanket;
and he saw her rise, take the empty bucket, and dip up water from where she
had been sitting. After this, Coyote arose and went out.
Near that place he spat upon some tule rushes, and told them to give
war-whoops after he had re-entered the lodge. So he went again into the
lodge, and soon there was a great noise of war-whoops. He said out loud to
himself, "I thought I heard something when I was outside." But for all his
strategy, the Frog widow would not budge from where she sat. So Coyote
seized her by the arm and jerked her up. Then the water came out. When the
water was running freely, he threw the woman into the stream, saying, "This
is the way you will always be: whenever high water comes, it will always
carry frogs down the river."
Coyote then started downstream, running as fast as he could. When he reached
the place of the first raft, he found it had broken adrift. So he ran on to
the next one, and found it also adrift; and the third the same, and the
fourth. He reached the fifth, however, just as it was breaking loose, and
managed to jump aboard. Then he went down the river on the raft. This is how
Coyote recovered the water from Frog.
Nez Perce Tales, By Herbert J. Spinden, 1907
There was a widow, Frog (wexwext), who was maltreated and became angry. So
she went up the river to the source, and sat over the fountain-head, so that
the entire river went dry. There was no water except in some deep holes.
Now, the people had not missed her; but Coyote (itseyeye) thought something
like this must have happened to make the river go dry. He went upstream,
because he knew the place where the water had been stopped. As he travelled
up the dry bed, he made five rafts, and placed them about five bends of the
river apart.
At the head of the river he saw a lodge. He was nearly dead of thirst when
he arrived; so he entered the lodge. Inside he saw a mountain-sheep-horn
bucket of water, and he said to the woman, "Pass that water over to me; I
have drunk a great deal of water along the river to-day, still I am very
dry." So he drank up all the water.
Coyote lay down on the opposite side of the lodge from the woman, and
covered his head with his blanket. But he had an eye-hole in the blanket;
and he saw her rise, take the empty bucket, and dip up water from where she
had been sitting. After this, Coyote arose and went out.
Near that place he spat upon some tule rushes, and told them to give
war-whoops after he had re-entered the lodge. So he went again into the
lodge, and soon there was a great noise of war-whoops. He said out loud to
himself, "I thought I heard something when I was outside." But for all his
strategy, the Frog widow would not budge from where she sat. So Coyote
seized her by the arm and jerked her up. Then the water came out. When the
water was running freely, he threw the woman into the stream, saying, "This
is the way you will always be: whenever high water comes, it will always
carry frogs down the river."
Coyote then started downstream, running as fast as he could. When he reached
the place of the first raft, he found it had broken adrift. So he ran on to
the next one, and found it also adrift; and the third the same, and the
fourth. He reached the fifth, however, just as it was breaking loose, and
managed to jump aboard. Then he went down the river on the raft. This is how
Coyote recovered the water from Frog.
Nez Perce Tales, By Herbert J. Spinden, 1907