From there he flew down and lit on the earth. He alighted on a tree near which sat the Coyote who had lowered him. He was saying he would shoot the eagle there and get feathers to fix his arrow's. When Coyote tried to steal up close under him the eagle flew away to his house and became a man again. Those, who used to be his children had been renamed, “They grew up by eating the neck.” Coyote had punched their eyes out. “He did it with an awl,” they told their father.
When he came back from hunting, his two children had been all right. He heard him bring his load as he came back. He was saying, “Raised-with-neck-meat, come and meet me.” “Do not go there,” he told his sons. Coyote kept shouting as he came. He brought the load there and threw it down. He called out. “Good, Cousin. You have come back? I took good care of your children.”
The man who had been with the eagles then told his wife to put four stones on the fire. She put them on the fire to heat. She put one here and one here. “Put two of the stones in your mouth and put your feet on these two,” he told Coyote. Coyote did as he was told to, but ran only a little way before his tail fell out. His wife had an ill odor from being with Coyote. He beat among Coyote's children with a stick.
He did not like living on the earth. He placed eagle plumes in a row which multiplied fourfold. With the aid of these the man became an eagle. The people living here came to have medicinemen with power from eagles. He was a man but became an eagle and is now in the sky above.
[59]. Told by the father of Frank Crockett in February, 1910. For the distribution of this story see p. 67 above. It was said to be the myth of a ceremony used to cure one who gets ill from eagle feathers when he uses them to put on his arrows.
[60]. This method of knowing when the parents are to return is found in another myth, p. 17 above.
[61]. A similar supplying of his wants is in the Navajo account, Matthews, 199.
He who became a Snake.[[62]]
A man (Naiyenezgani) was living alone. He brought wood there and built a fire. He danced on rawhide against white men and then went to war. He came where the white people were and killed a white woman. He raised up her skirt with a stick and Gila monster was there. “Let that be your name,” he said and Gila Monster was called łenellai. The two of them started back and came to a mountain called Bitcilł'ehe. From there they went back and came to a place called Tsitena'a. A porcupine was there and one of the men said, “My cousin, a porcupine lies here.” They killed it and buried it in the ashes of the fire. At midnight he uncovered it, but Naiyenezgani did not eat of it, only his partner. “My cousin, it tastes like red peppers, taste it,” he said. They lay down again and went to sleep. The next morning there were traces where the one who had eaten had crawled into the water as a snake. Naiyenezgani went back from there and in the yellow light of evening came back to Tatakawa,[[63]] saying, “Since early this morning I came from Tsitena'a.” When all the people had come together they asked, “What place is called that?” “Big-hawk-old-man says he has been all over earth and seen everything.[[64]] Send for him,” they said. When he was summoned, he came walking with his cane and sat down. “You are accustomed to say you have seen every place on earth. A man says he has come from Tsitena'a since early this morning,” they told him. “Well, it is not near. I flew from there in ten days and when I came here the yellow light of sunset was over the earth.”