Coyote and Fox were half brothers (or cousins). They often played tricks on each other. Once Coyote had found a carcass (or had killed some game), which he began to cook in a pit. While he was waiting under a branchy tree for the meat to be done, he fell asleep. Fox came along and caused the tree to fall on Coyote, who could not get away for a time. While he was imprisoned, he saw Fox eating the meat, and begged him to leave some; but Fox ate it all before Coyote could get away.
Another time Fox fastened a rattle to his tail, and Coyote wanted to get it. Fox told him it was dangerous, and that only he himself ,could wear it; but Coyote persisted, so Fox fastened it to Coyote's tail, and warned him not to go through any brush. He knew that Coyote would try to go through brush, in order to learn why this had been forbidden. Coyote walked through bushes and stripped the rattle from his tail. He felt something pulling at his backside, and discovered that the rattle had caught in the bushes and was pulling out his entrails. He did not know what to do, and fainted. Fox came along, took away the rattle, and put back Coyote's entrails. Then he kicked Coyote, who awoke, and believed that he had been asleep.
Coyote was caught in a cave, and called on all animals and birds for aid. They tried to release him, but failed. Finally he called on theWoodpeckers. One of them stuck the rock and cracked it; the second widened the crack; the third one widened it still more; and finally the Red-Headed Woodpecker split it open, so that Coyote was able to get out. Some people say that Coyote was caught in a hollow tree, and that the Woodpeckers pecked a hole and took him out. Some add that they pulled him out by the tail.
Formerly mosquitoes were very large, fierce, and ate people. Mosquito and his wife lived in a house at the edge of the timber, near a swamp. They hunted people, and killed them by sucking their blood. Mosquito hunted only women, and his wife only hunted men. They preferred the blood from the privates of people. Coyote or some other transformer turned thim into mosquitoes, saying, "Henceforth you shall be small insects, and shall frequent swamps and woods. You shall be able to suck on little blood only. You shall not have power to kill people."
Coyote (or some other transformer) was travelling, and came to a place where a cannibal lived in a large hollow tree. He used as a decoy a stuffed elk-skin, which he kept within arrow range on an open flat near a lake-shore. When a hunter stalked the elk, the cannibal shot and ate him. Many bones and skulls were around the base of the tree. Coyote defecated, and made his excrements whistle. When the cannibal looked out of the top of the tree, thinking that some one was there, Coyote entered the tree and shot the cannibal, whom he hit in the anus.5
Coyote was travelling, and came to a creek, where he saw a sweat-house covered with a nice blanket. He listened, but heard nothing except the noise sometimes made by hot stones. He lifted up a corner of the blanket and looked in. He did not see any one. He thought, "I will take this blanket," and went off with it. When he had gone some distance, he heard a noise behind. He looked, but saw nothing;. The noise came nearer, and at last became so terrible that Coyote started to run. Although he did not see anything, he felt some one striking his legs. Something knocked him down, picked him up again, struck his head, and blinded him. He seemed to be torn to pieces, and was rolled about until he lost consciousness. It was Sweat-House-Man, or the Wind, who had come to punish Coyote. When Coyote woke up, he found himself in the middle of a swamp, bruised and bleeding, stung by mosquitoes, and his clothes all torn. His eyes and body were swollen, and smarting from mosquito-bites. The sand-flies had crawled into his mouth, nose, ears, and anus, and infested his hair. He extricated himself with difficulty, and after some tiresome travelling in the mud he came out of the swamp.6 The blanket went back to Sweat-House Man.
1 The narrator said he did not remember the details of the story well. He had heard several variants of it. He could not tell whether the story was really Thompson, Shuswap, or Okanagan. He thought it was known to all these tribes, since the tales of the Thompson people of Spences Bridge, Ashcroft, and Nicola were about the same as those of the Shuswap of Bonaparte, Deadman's Creek. and Kamloops, and of the Okanagan at the head of Okanagan Lake. -See reference under (15).
2 BBAE 59: 293 (note 1).
3 Thompson JE 8: 306; Shuswap JE 2 : 634. 742; Maidu PAES 4: 37. Hupa Cal. 151; Boas, Sagen 5.
4 The Thompson Indinas believe the male mopnitues bite women. and the female mosquitoes bite men.
5 Full details of this story gave been forgotten.
6 Some informants say that he made a cold wind blow, which drove away the flies and mosquitoes, froze or stiffened the mud, and healed or refreshed his body.
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