When Coyote was dead his wife gave the daughter to the man described by Coyote and he married her. It was Coyote himself, who married his own daughter. He had her hunt his lice. On the back of his head was a large wart. He told her that the lice always stay on this side, indicating a portion of his head remote from the wart. While she was looking for his lice, her husband fell asleep. Wondering why he always spoke as he did, she looked on the back of his head. There was a wart there. She slipped his head off her lap while he was asleep and going to her mother told her that the man was her father; that he had a wart on the back of his head. She picked up a large stone and was about to strike him on the crown of his head when he saw her shadow. He jumped, ran out, and trotted off toward the east. Whenever he came where there were camps people reviled him as the man who had his own daughter for his wife. They heard him saying “ci, ci, ci.” They referred to him as the scabby one and hit him. He cried “wai” and turned from human form into a coyote.
Coyote was driving some mules. He smothered five of the mules. He wondered what smothered them. “Hurry,” he said, “skin their throats. This place will be called Coyote Springs,” he said.
When coyotes were people they all drank whiskey and ran about everywhere shouting. When they became coyotes, they barked.
[69]. Told by the father of Frank Crockett.
[70]. This incident is generally known over western North America. Professor Boas has discussed its distribution.
Bibliography.
Franciscan Fathers, The. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. St. Michaels, Arizona, 1910. Goddard, Pliny Earle, (a) Jicarilla Apache Texts (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. VIII. New York, 1911.) (b) The Beaver Indians (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. X, part IV. New York, 1916.) Kroeber, A. L. Gros Ventre Myths and Tales (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. I, part III. New York, 1907.) Matthews, Washington. Navaho Legends (Memoirs, American Folk-Lore Society, vol. V. New York, 1897.) Russell, Frank. Myths of the Jicarilla Apache (Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. XI, 1898.) Voth, H. R. The Traditions of the Hopi (Publication 96, Anthropological Series, Field Columbian Museum, vol. VIII. Chicago, 1905.) Wissler, Clark, and Duvall, D. C. Blackfoot Mythology (Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, vol. II, part I. New York, 1908.)
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
- Silently corrected typographical errors.
- Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.