Post by Okwes on Mar 27, 2007 14:58:12 GMT -5
Coyote the Expeditioner - Nez Perce
Coyote [itsaya' ya] was building a fish ladder down the river. While he was busily engaged at this task, someone shouted to him, "Now why are you bothering with that? All the people have gone on the big expedition into the East Country."
"Huh!" he said to himself. "I believe I will go, too. Why should I stay here?" He started for the East Country. He found as he went along traces of the people's camping, and evidences of such activities as ball playing, announcing of daily events, war dancing, and in fact every kind of merriment. He saw all these things as he followed.
While going along, he suddenly came upon a lodge in a little meadow. "Well, who is his?" he said to himself. He crept up to the lodge cautiously. He was brimming with curiosity. He heard a moan come from within. He crept closer and came to the door-flap, thereupon he peeped through to behold a beautiful maiden ill in bed.
Coyote quickly retreated. There, some distance from the lodge, he charmed himself by saying, "Let me become a very handsome man, finely clothed, and let me have a beautiful, spotted horse." Thereupon he became possessed of all these things.
He went to the lodge again, approaching grandly and in all pomp, with the jingling of he bells and ornaments that he wore. When she heard his approach, the maiden inside rendered who could be coming to visit her. Now disguised, Coyote entered and said to the maiden, "What has happened to you?" He used the down-river accent to make his guise Bore effective.
"I have a splinter in my foot, a buffalo horn," replied the maiden.
"Well," said Coyote, "where are my friends the Eagle and others? He named those of great power. Why did they not doctor you? They are always claiming powers superior to mine. Why did they leave you in this pitiful condition?"
"Well, my mother and father told me that if someone should come along and doctor me, and make me well again, he should become my husband," the maiden told him.
"I see," said Coyote, "but there is a party of us; they are waiting for me there now. Being young men they are in a hurry, but perhaps they will sing for you briefly and then go long. They are in such a hurry." [He pretended that he was a great shaman.]
Coyote went outside, walked away some distance, and then struck his hip with his fist to cause his children to tumble out ["yo '-x ox ox ox"]. At once these ten children began to fight fiercely among themselves. Coyote called for their fighting to stop and told them, "You are going to sing for me and beat sticks in accompaniment because there is a maiden ill abed." Thereupon they all marched into the lodge where Coyote placed himself at the maiden's feet while the others, from the opposite side, made a great din by their singing are beating of sticks ["wax-wax-wax-wax"].
Now Coyote began to work on the horn in her foot, tugging at it with his teeth. The splinter had already caused a big accumulation of pus and, suddenly now, as Coyote pulled out the horn, he was splattered with pus. Then, quickly, he blew his breath on the wound to cool it.
. "Now, these boys are in a hurry," Coyote told her. "So let me see them off briefly that they may be on their way." All stood up in unison and went out. There outside Coyote told them. "Hurry, jump inside." He came back to the house quickly, and there he nursed her They stayed day after day until eventually her foot became much better.
One day Coyote said to her, "Tomorrow we are going to move up and follow the main party " They went, and Coyote now had a wife. Far away they caught up to the party which had already crossed the divide into the East Country. The people had assembled in a great encampment. There Coyote asked them, "Where is my aunt, Mouse [laqatsya' ya], living?"
"There, over there is their camp," they replied. So Coyote went, taking his wife to his aunt. He arrived there and asked, "Where is my cousin, Bear [xa' xats], camped?"
"There," the Mouse told him. Such a splendid lodge Bear owned, set off in two-tone effect.
Coyote now said, "Go to my cousin's lodge and fetch his hand-drum to me.
"From such a dangerous one?" said the Mouse in alarm.
"Why you are not even afraid of me! Why should you fear him? Hurry, get it for me!" Coyote insisted. All the people had great respect for Bear, and certainly, no one dared defy or to impose on him.
"Such a nuisance Coyote makes himself invariably," thought the Mouse; nevertheless she went to Bear's lodge. There the Mouse sat, very much abashed, in the doorway of Bear's lodge and said, "I was only made to come by troublesome Coyote. He insisted that his cousin Bear lend him his hand-drum."
Bear turned to his wife and said, "Give him yours." Each one had a drum. His wife gave her drum to Mouse who then carried it to Coyote.
"Egad! Whose is it? His very own? No, it is a woman's," raved Coyote upon receiving the drum. "I wanted his very own-not my cousin's wife's. Hurry back and get the other one for me."
She went back, looking very downcast and feeling most remorseful, to sit again by doorway of Bear's lodge. She told him, "He said that he does not want his cousin's wife but that you should lend him your very own."
"What bother he talks; and it is always so. Here take this to him. What a nuisance has become."
The Mouse took the drum and carried it to Coyote. "This is it; this is my cousin's own! What was he thinking to give me a woman's in the first place?" said Coyote. Now he lounged back, pillowed himself on the lap of his wife, and commenced playing and singing in an excessively loud voice. The people gathered around. All the people in camp crowded around. There he was, head pillowed on his wife and his eyes closed, playing and singing.
From over in his lodge Bear could hear that the hand-drum had begun to sound strange, and he thought to himself, "What is this? Coyote is ruining my hand-drum." Coyote had been sprinkling the drum-head with water every little while. Bear ordered them, "Get my hand-drum! Coyote is spoiling it."
When Coyote heard that Bear wanted his drum returned he, at once, became very angry. In his anger he threw it out of the smoke-hole of the lodge, and it happened to fall exactly into the smoke-hole of Bear's lodge.
Bear became infuriated at this, but now the people told him, "They have exchanged his wife on him. He thinks that his beautiful wife whom he brought still sits there, and that he is pillowed on her lap. But awhile ago, they changed her around and put Lady Bullfrog [waxwaq'-lo' sana] in her place. It was a long time ago that they took his wife, while he was singing with his eyes closed.
"It serves him right! He was becoming a nuisance," Bear replied. Here was Coyote reclining very comfortably. He happened to glance upward casually and suddenly beheld Lady Bullfrog with her big eyes blinking. "What are you doing here? So this is why the people have been laughing at me! Go away! So they exchanged my wife while I was reclining on her?"
"Yes, nephew," replied Lady Bullfrog, "they had me sit here quite awhile ago. I don't know where they took your wife."
Coyote now addressed all the people, "Not only am I indignant and hurt. Only a short time from now the human race comes, and many people will come on expeditions to this East Country. But on crossing the divide here, their wives will go wrong, will do foolish things. Even a quiet, well-behaved woman will come over the divide; yet she will go wrong here. Not only for myself am I indignant, for there is only a short time until the coming of the human race.
Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949]
Coyote [itsaya' ya] was building a fish ladder down the river. While he was busily engaged at this task, someone shouted to him, "Now why are you bothering with that? All the people have gone on the big expedition into the East Country."
"Huh!" he said to himself. "I believe I will go, too. Why should I stay here?" He started for the East Country. He found as he went along traces of the people's camping, and evidences of such activities as ball playing, announcing of daily events, war dancing, and in fact every kind of merriment. He saw all these things as he followed.
While going along, he suddenly came upon a lodge in a little meadow. "Well, who is his?" he said to himself. He crept up to the lodge cautiously. He was brimming with curiosity. He heard a moan come from within. He crept closer and came to the door-flap, thereupon he peeped through to behold a beautiful maiden ill in bed.
Coyote quickly retreated. There, some distance from the lodge, he charmed himself by saying, "Let me become a very handsome man, finely clothed, and let me have a beautiful, spotted horse." Thereupon he became possessed of all these things.
He went to the lodge again, approaching grandly and in all pomp, with the jingling of he bells and ornaments that he wore. When she heard his approach, the maiden inside rendered who could be coming to visit her. Now disguised, Coyote entered and said to the maiden, "What has happened to you?" He used the down-river accent to make his guise Bore effective.
"I have a splinter in my foot, a buffalo horn," replied the maiden.
"Well," said Coyote, "where are my friends the Eagle and others? He named those of great power. Why did they not doctor you? They are always claiming powers superior to mine. Why did they leave you in this pitiful condition?"
"Well, my mother and father told me that if someone should come along and doctor me, and make me well again, he should become my husband," the maiden told him.
"I see," said Coyote, "but there is a party of us; they are waiting for me there now. Being young men they are in a hurry, but perhaps they will sing for you briefly and then go long. They are in such a hurry." [He pretended that he was a great shaman.]
Coyote went outside, walked away some distance, and then struck his hip with his fist to cause his children to tumble out ["yo '-x ox ox ox"]. At once these ten children began to fight fiercely among themselves. Coyote called for their fighting to stop and told them, "You are going to sing for me and beat sticks in accompaniment because there is a maiden ill abed." Thereupon they all marched into the lodge where Coyote placed himself at the maiden's feet while the others, from the opposite side, made a great din by their singing are beating of sticks ["wax-wax-wax-wax"].
Now Coyote began to work on the horn in her foot, tugging at it with his teeth. The splinter had already caused a big accumulation of pus and, suddenly now, as Coyote pulled out the horn, he was splattered with pus. Then, quickly, he blew his breath on the wound to cool it.
. "Now, these boys are in a hurry," Coyote told her. "So let me see them off briefly that they may be on their way." All stood up in unison and went out. There outside Coyote told them. "Hurry, jump inside." He came back to the house quickly, and there he nursed her They stayed day after day until eventually her foot became much better.
One day Coyote said to her, "Tomorrow we are going to move up and follow the main party " They went, and Coyote now had a wife. Far away they caught up to the party which had already crossed the divide into the East Country. The people had assembled in a great encampment. There Coyote asked them, "Where is my aunt, Mouse [laqatsya' ya], living?"
"There, over there is their camp," they replied. So Coyote went, taking his wife to his aunt. He arrived there and asked, "Where is my cousin, Bear [xa' xats], camped?"
"There," the Mouse told him. Such a splendid lodge Bear owned, set off in two-tone effect.
Coyote now said, "Go to my cousin's lodge and fetch his hand-drum to me.
"From such a dangerous one?" said the Mouse in alarm.
"Why you are not even afraid of me! Why should you fear him? Hurry, get it for me!" Coyote insisted. All the people had great respect for Bear, and certainly, no one dared defy or to impose on him.
"Such a nuisance Coyote makes himself invariably," thought the Mouse; nevertheless she went to Bear's lodge. There the Mouse sat, very much abashed, in the doorway of Bear's lodge and said, "I was only made to come by troublesome Coyote. He insisted that his cousin Bear lend him his hand-drum."
Bear turned to his wife and said, "Give him yours." Each one had a drum. His wife gave her drum to Mouse who then carried it to Coyote.
"Egad! Whose is it? His very own? No, it is a woman's," raved Coyote upon receiving the drum. "I wanted his very own-not my cousin's wife's. Hurry back and get the other one for me."
She went back, looking very downcast and feeling most remorseful, to sit again by doorway of Bear's lodge. She told him, "He said that he does not want his cousin's wife but that you should lend him your very own."
"What bother he talks; and it is always so. Here take this to him. What a nuisance has become."
The Mouse took the drum and carried it to Coyote. "This is it; this is my cousin's own! What was he thinking to give me a woman's in the first place?" said Coyote. Now he lounged back, pillowed himself on the lap of his wife, and commenced playing and singing in an excessively loud voice. The people gathered around. All the people in camp crowded around. There he was, head pillowed on his wife and his eyes closed, playing and singing.
From over in his lodge Bear could hear that the hand-drum had begun to sound strange, and he thought to himself, "What is this? Coyote is ruining my hand-drum." Coyote had been sprinkling the drum-head with water every little while. Bear ordered them, "Get my hand-drum! Coyote is spoiling it."
When Coyote heard that Bear wanted his drum returned he, at once, became very angry. In his anger he threw it out of the smoke-hole of the lodge, and it happened to fall exactly into the smoke-hole of Bear's lodge.
Bear became infuriated at this, but now the people told him, "They have exchanged his wife on him. He thinks that his beautiful wife whom he brought still sits there, and that he is pillowed on her lap. But awhile ago, they changed her around and put Lady Bullfrog [waxwaq'-lo' sana] in her place. It was a long time ago that they took his wife, while he was singing with his eyes closed.
"It serves him right! He was becoming a nuisance," Bear replied. Here was Coyote reclining very comfortably. He happened to glance upward casually and suddenly beheld Lady Bullfrog with her big eyes blinking. "What are you doing here? So this is why the people have been laughing at me! Go away! So they exchanged my wife while I was reclining on her?"
"Yes, nephew," replied Lady Bullfrog, "they had me sit here quite awhile ago. I don't know where they took your wife."
Coyote now addressed all the people, "Not only am I indignant and hurt. Only a short time from now the human race comes, and many people will come on expeditions to this East Country. But on crossing the divide here, their wives will go wrong, will do foolish things. Even a quiet, well-behaved woman will come over the divide; yet she will go wrong here. Not only for myself am I indignant, for there is only a short time until the coming of the human race.
Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949]