Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) / A Record of Five Years' Exploration Among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre; In the Tierra Caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and Among the Tarascos of Michoacan

by Carl Lumholtz

Star Legend

A man lived with three women. He was making arrows while they went to look for squirrels and woodchucks, and when they could find none they killed their father. Then they said: “It is of no use to stop here any longer. Let us go away.” When the man saw them running away he shot arrows after them. The women were ascending to heaven, holding each other’s hands, and he transfixed them to the sky, where they can still be seen just as they rose, as three bright stars in the belt of Orion. The three women remained in heaven, but the man remained in the world and was changed into a coyote.