One day the old Coyote of Cedar Cañon went out hunting, and as he was prowling around among the sage-bushes below Thunder Mountain, he heard the clang and rattle and the shrill cries of the K’yámakwe. He pricked up his ears, stuck his nose into the air, sniffed about and looked all around, and presently discovered the K’yámakwe children running rapidly back and forth on the very edge of the mountain.
“Delight of my senses, what pretty creatures they are! Good for me!” he piped, in a jovial voice. “I am the finder of children. I must capture the little fellows tomorrow, and bring them up as Coyotes ought to be brought up. Aren’t they handsome, though?”
All this he said to himself, in a fit of conceit, with his nose in the air (presumptuous cur!), planning to steal the children of a god! He hunted no more that day, but ran home as fast as he could, and, arriving there, he said: “Wife! Wife! O wife! I have discovered a number of the prettiest waifs one ever saw. They are children of the Kâkâ, but what matters that? They are there, running back and forth and clanging their rattles along the very edge of Thunder Mountain. I mean to steal them tomorrow, every one of them, and bring them here!”
“Mercy on us!” exclaimed the old Coyote’s wife. “There are children enough and to spare already. What in the world can we do with all of them, you fool?”
“But they are pretty,” said the Coyote. “Immensely fine! Every Coyote in the country would envy us the possession of them!”
“But you say they are many,” continued the wife.
“Well, yes, a good many,” said the Coyote.
“Well, why not divide them among our associated clans?” suggested the old woman. “You never can capture them alone; it is rare enough that you capture anything alone, leave out the children of the K’yámakwe. Get your relatives to help you, and divide the children amongst them.”
“Well, now, come to think of it, it is a good plan,” said the Coyote, with his nose on his neck. “If I get up this expedition I’ll be a big chief, won’t I? Hurrah! Here’s for it!” he shouted; and, switching his tail in the face of his wife, he shot out of the hole and ran away to a high rock, where, squatting down with a most important air and his nose lifted high, he cried out:
“Au hii lâ-â-â-â!