FOOTNOTES:
[49] Told by Many-Fox.
49. THE COYOTE AND THE MICE SUN DANCE.[50]
While the Coyote was wandering in the evening he heard dancing, but he could not see the dance anywhere. He went on walking around and hunting for the dance. He was about to give up, when he found that the noise of the dancing came from an elk skull in the bushes.
The Mice ran away as soon as the Coyote came up, but the Coyote begged to see them dance. He addressed them thus, “Uncles, I want to see you dance.” The Mice said: “We are afraid of you, for you may eat us. We would like to see you, but you are very tricky, and you might eat us.” The Coyote begged so hard, saying he had not seen his uncles for many months, and he wanted to see them; so the Mice agreed to let him into the dance. They let the Coyote peep into the back part of the skull, so that he could see the dance. As soon as the Coyote had run his head through the skull the Mice ran away, and the Coyote was held fast with his head in the skull. The Coyote begged the Mice to take the skull off, but the Mice would not listen to him. They told him to go away. So the Coyote went on his way, with the skull on his head.
The Coyote could not see very well, on account of the skull being over his eyes. He heard some noises at a distance. He went straight to a camp. He came to the edge of some water. The people saw the animal coming on the other side of the water, and some of them hallooed, “A wonderful animal coming on the other side of the water!” When the Coyote saw that the people were scared he commenced to make funny noises. Some of the people said, “Make way, so that we may be spared and live.” The Coyote said, “Give me the chief’s daughter and you shall all live.” The people gave him the chief’s daughter. The Coyote swam across the water and the people made a tipi for him. The girl took the Coyote by the horns and led him to the tipi. The Coyote stayed with the girl all night. In the morning the Coyote and the girl were sent for to come and eat. The Coyote was still close to the girl, and some boy saw that it was a Coyote. The boy yelled, “This being that is in the tipi with the girl is nothing but a Coyote!” The people rushed there and the Coyote was forced out beyond the tipi. As he could not see very well he ran into people and dogs. The people struck the skull until they broke it to pieces. They caught the Coyote and brought him home. They tied his legs with strings, drove some pegs into the ground, and tied him fast to the pegs. As the people went out they would go to the Coyote and urinate and defecate on him. One old woman went out to defecate on the Coyote, and as she lifted her dress she wanted to know how she was to do it. The Coyote told the woman that the first thing to be done was to pull the pegs, then pull up her dress, then defecate on him. The Coyote took a long stick, and as the woman lifted her dress and tried to defecate on him he ran the stick into her rectum, then stuck the stick in the ground. He then ran away and defecated as he went. For this reason the Coyote defecates easily and is always running from the people.