American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) (14 page)

Coyote caught a cricket and put it behind one ear. He caught a bird and put it behind the other ear. As the dance began, Coyote danced and swayed with the others and soon the cricket and the bird began to sing. Coyote mouthed the songs, causing people to think that he himself was doing the singing. The two girls heard the songs and thought that they were the loveliest that they had ever heard. Finally they could resist the singing no longer and came down to see who was at the dance and who was singing such songs. They saw Coyote and danced with him, one on each side. The people marveled at the sight. Finally, as the other people became tired, they left, and Coyote and the two girls were alone.

When they tired, they lay down to sleep, with Coyote in the center and a girl on each side. When Coyote fell asleep he snored and swayed and this started the bird and cricket to sing again. The girls looked behind Coyote’s ears and found the cricket and the bird, and knew that they had been tricked. The girls looked about and found two logs and put them alongside Coyote. They were put so close to Coyote that he was unable to move. Coyote finally awoke and saw the logs pinning him down. The girls had gone back to their home on the hill and Coyote knew that he had been tricked himself and repaid for what he had done.

Coyote’s wife died. Before he disposed of her body, he cut her genitals off, and after that he dried them and pounded them to a powder, which he put in a pouch. Every time he got lonely for his wife, he took this package out and sprinkled some of the powder on his penis. It caused an orgasm every time.

Coyote had several sons. They saw their father go away by himself with his pouch several times. They snooped around and finally saw what he was doing.

One time when he was away they stole his pouch. They stood around and sprinkled the powder on their penises. It caused erections and orgasms, and they were ejaculating in all directions.

Just then Coyote came in and found them at it. He was very angry. He scolded them and beat them. “It was just for myself,” he said. “You had no business taking it. Which of you did it work on?”

“It didn’t work on me,” the smallest son said. “No white stuff came out, though my penis grew big. I had only a pouch.”

Coyote was a young man. He came out and saw two girls picking hazelnuts. They had a sweetheart, Cotton Tail Rabbit. Coyote came along and asked, “Where are you going?”

They said, “We are going to camp out.”

Then Coyote said, “Can I go with you?”

“Sure,” they said, so he went with them.

They said to him, “We’re going to camp right here on this sandbar,” so they laid down and slept. Coyote slept in the middle between the girls, while Rabbit slept crossways at the foot.

The blanket was narrow. Every time they pulled it, they tore it in the middle, and Coyote pushed with his elbows and said, “Don’t get so close to me, your breasts are too big. Don’t get so close to me, I am going hunting tomorrow.” Then he went to sleep and snored.

The girls did not like him. They felt sorry for Rabbit sleeping at the foot and they said, “Let’s run away from Coyote.”

Rabbit said, “All right,” and they put logs on both sides of Coyote so he would think they were still there, and went across the river and stayed.

About noon they saw Coyote come out across the river. He said to Rabbit, “Take me across.” Rabbit would not do this, so Coyote got angry. He picked up rocks; he was going to fight that Rabbit. He swam across, carrying the rocks. Rabbit got frightened. He made medicine to cause the river to be rough, so that Coyote would not be able to land. Soon Coyote drowned, and Rabbit thought he had two wives now and would never see Coyote again, because he was drowned.

Coyote landed way down the river, nothing but bones. Some thought they saw some nice wood in the river. They thought they would go and chop it. When they hit him, Coyote got up and said, “I was just sleeping right there,” and went along up the river. He came across a camp where he saw many children. He thought, “I bet those are Rabbit’s children.” So he frightened all those children and made them go to sleep. Then he set fire to the camp and all the children were burned and he ran away up the river.

He had heard that there was a woman up the river who had killed many men. Every man who slept with her she killed. There was nothing but bones outside, and nobody ever passed that way anymore. He knew how she killed them: When a man had intercourse with her, she killed him. There were teeth inside her. Coyote decided to go up and see her. So he made sticks. He took those sticks and went up there and thought he was going to kill her.

He stood around near her house. Soon she came out. “Ah, come on,” she said. She wanted him to sleep with her right away. Coyote thought everything was all right, so when the woman wanted him to have intercourse with her, he took one of the sticks and did what she wanted. Soon he felt the stick was wearing out, and he put another in its place. He had ten sticks. The woman kept talking about it. She said, “I’m glad, my husband.” He changed sticks five times. After that she quieted down. At about the eighth time she was saying something only once in a while. The tenth time he killed her. Coyote blew his breath and said, “These Indians are going to have a good time with women from now on. They aren’t going to be killed.”

Coyote was walking along. He saw too young girls by a lake about to take a bath. He thought: “I sure would like to have these girls. I sure would like to cohabit with them.” He hid himself among the reeds and watched. The girls were taking their clothes off. Coyote turned himself into a fish and slipped into the water. He was darting back and forth.

One of the girls said to the other: “Look at that pretty little fish.”

“It’s just a fish,” said the other.

They were naked. They waded into the lake. When it was deep enough, they began to swim. One girl said to the other: “I feel something tickling me between the legs, something slippery.” Coyote entered that girl. Her body almost swallowed him up. “I feel something strange down there,” said the girl. After a while Coyote slipped out of her.

Then the other girl said: “Something is tickling me, too, between my legs.” Coyote entered her. The girl said: “I also feel something strange wiggling down there, but it feels rather good.” Coyote did what he wanted and slipped out of her. The girls finished bathing, dressed, and went home.

After some time, one of these girls said to the other: “My belly has swelled up. It must be all the good fatty meat and kidneys we are eating.”

“That must be it,” said the other girl. “We are lucky that our father is such a good hunter.”

After some more time one of these two girls said to the other: “My belly is really big now. What can be the matter?”

“My belly is swollen up, too,” said the other girl. “I think we are pregnant.” ,

“How can this be?” asked the first girl.

“Remember when we were swimming in the lake? It must have been that little fish that got between our legs.”

“But how can a fish get us pregnant?”

“It was Coyote, that evil fellow, who played this trick on us.”

“I hope we’ll be giving birth to humans,” said the other, “and not little coyotes.”

Well, Coyote was on his way to make mischief again. He came to a stream. On the far shore he saw two girls digging camas. “These girls are pretty, even from this far away,” Coyote said to himself. “I will enter them.” He sent his penis across the water. It came out on the other riverbank. With his Trickster power, he make it look like a stalk.

“I have been sitting on some plant stem,” one of the girls said to the other. “It got into me by accident.” The penis was enjoying himself. Coyote, on the far bank, was enjoying it. He took his penis out of this girl and slipped it into the other.

“I, too, sat on some kind of root,” said the other girl. “It also got into me.” Coyote was having a good time.