Coyote was travelling, and heard water dropping. He said, " I will go and beat it." he sat down near it, and cried, "Hox-hox-hox-hox!" in imitation of water dripping. He tried four times, but the noise never ceased. He became angry, arose, and kicked the place where the water dropped. The noise ceased. He thought he had beaten it, and laughed, saying, "I beat you. No more shall water drip thus and make a noise." Shortly after he had gone, the water began to drip as before. He became angry, and said, "Did I not say water shall not run and make a noise?" The water was coming after him, and increased in volume as it flowed. He kept on running; but still he heard the noise of water, and was much annoyed. Now he travelled along the edge of a plateau. There was no water there, nor trees. He looked down into the coulee,2 but everywhere it was dry. It was warm, and he became very thirsty. He heard the noise of water, but saw none. Then he looked again down into the coulee, and saw a small creek flowing along the bottom. It seemed a long distance away. He went down and drank his fill.
He ascended again, but had barely reached the top when he became thirsty. He heard more noise of water, and, looking over the edge, saw a large creek running. He went down, drank his fill, and ascended again, but had not reached the top when he was thirsty, as before. He thought, "Where can I drink?" The water was following him. He went to the edge of a bench and looked down. A small river was now running below. He descended and drank. He wondered that much water was running where there had been none before. The more he drank, the sooner he became thirsty again. The fourth time he became thirsty he was only a little way from the water. He was angry, and turned back to drink. The water had now risen to a good-sized river, so that he had not far to go. He said, "What may be the matter? I am always thirsty now. There is no use of my going away. I will walk along the edge of the water." He did so; but as he was still thirsty, he said, " I will walk in the water." The water reached up to his knees. This did not satisfy him; and every time after drinking, he walked deeper, first up to the waist, then up to the arms. Then he said, " I will swim, so that my mouth will be close to the water, and I can drink all the time." Finally he had drunk so much that he lost consciousness. Thus the water got even with Coyote for kicking it; and thus from a few drops of water originated the Columbia River.
Once Coyote was travelling somewhere south of the Columbia River. He was going down a coulee in which there was no water. The weather was very hot, and he felt very hot and dry. He saw a large rock, and said, "I will rest in its shade." When he did so, the rock began to crack and lean over, and Coyote became afraid and ran away. After a while he saw a tree, and thought he would rest in its shade. He sat down under it; but it began to creak and lean over, so he ran away. He looked at the sky, but saw no clouds. He said, "I wish a cloud would come!" Soon a cloud carne up and shaded him. He said, "That is not enough. I want many clouds." Soon the sky became overcast, but it was still hot. Then he wished for rain. A little rain came. He said, "I want much rain." It began to pour down. He said, "I want a creek, so that my feet may be cool." A creek ran, and he walked in it. He said, "'That is not enough. I want a river, so that I may be cool and drink easily." A river ran then. It reached to his chin, and carried him away to a distant country, where he floated ashore quite exhausted, and lay on the bank. The ravens, crows, magpies, and buzzards came to feed on him, thinking he was dead. He got up and chased them away.3
Now, there was a large river, and Coyote floated along in it. After drifting a long time, he regained consciousness. When he discovered himself in the middle of a large, swift-running river, he became afraid, and changed himself into a small canoe. Now, away down below, somewhere above the place where Portland is now, and where there is a fall in the river, there lived the two We'lwel5 sisters, who owned a weir that extended across the stream. Below the weir the river was full of salmon; while above it, in the interior, there were none. The Indians above the weir knew nothing of salmon at that time. They lived on game, roots, and berries. Coyote, who still had the form of a canoe bottom up, struck the weir and remained there. In the morning the two sisters came out to clean the weir of driftwood which had floated against it, for the river was very high. They saw the small canoe bottom up; and the younger one said, "We must save it. It will make a fine dish for us to hold our salmon in." The elder sister said, "Do not touch it. It has been made by some one. Possibly it is Coyote." The younger sister took it home and put boiled salmon into it. Then the sisters went out root-digging; and when they returned, the salmon in the dish had disappeared, and also some of the fish that they had been drying. The elder sister said, "I told you!" The younger sister became angry, and tried to break the dish on a rock. As she was about to do so, the dish in her hands assumed the shape of a baby, which began to cry.6 She took pity on it, and said, "Oh, he will make a nice younger brother for us!"
Coyote grew fast; and when the women went root-digging, they tied him up in the house. When they were out of sight, he unfastened himself, and ate their roots and their dried salmon. On their return he tied himself up, and appeared quiet and meek. The women would say, "How good our younger brother is!"
Coyote planned to break the women's weir and to let the salmon pass up river. The fourth day, when they were out digging roots, the root-digger of the elder sister broke. She was surprised, and said, "There is something wrong. My root-digger should not have broken. It was made of very strong wood. Let us go home! Something has happened. Perhaps our younger brother has fallen into the water." They hastened home.
1 Thompson JE 8 : 305; this volume, p. 140.
2 This coulee is where the Columbia River runs now. There was no river there then.
3 There is supposed to be more to this story, but my informant had forgotten it.
4 BBAE 59 : 301 (note 1); this volume, pp. 6, 70, 101, 139.
5 A kind of snipe or sandpiper. All the interior Salish tribes call this bird by the same name.
6 In Thompson renderings of the story, the dish is put into the fire, and the women hear a baby crying in the fire.
