Coyote was travelling along the ice of the river. It was wintertime. He saw the two Steelhead sisters on the ice. He said," I will go back, meet them, and fool them." When they met, the elder sister recognized him, and said, "Halloo, Coyote! Where are you going? What do you want?" He answered, "Oh, I am just travelling along on the ice! Yes, I want something. I wish to wrestle with you." He thought he would throw her and have intercourse with her. They wrestled, and the woman threw him upon the ice so hard that it killed him. He lay there a long time, and dried up, until only his bones and skin remained.
Fox1 heard of his death, and jumped over his bones. Coyote came to life, sat up, and yawned. He said, "I just lay down here and had a nap." Fox said, "You were dead a long time, and I have brought you to life." Ever since that time this part of the river has been a good place for steelhead-fish, and the Indians catch numbers there in the springtime.This place became one of the great fishing-stations on the Columbia. Many people congregated there to fish salmon. Not many salmon go above this place, for Coyote is said to have turned back from there. Many of the people above went there to fish or buy salmon. Coyote stayed there for some time.
Soon one of Coyote's wives bore a daughter, who was a pretty child, and who grew very rapidly. Coyote took a fancy to her, and thought, "I will have her for my wife. I will feign sickness." He pretended to be sick and dying. He called his daughter, and said to her, "If I die, just leave me in the lodge here. Leave it standing, and leave food and water, and everything just as at present, so that I may have everything with me when I die. If you hear a noise like water bubbling, you may know that my ghost is here and will chase you. Now, I am sure to die; and when I depart, go to my sister Mouse, and live with her. Heed your dying father's wish. I have a good friend among the Upper Kutenai. If he comes along and wishes to marry you, do not refuse him."
He pretended to die, and his daughter told the people what he had said. The people said, "The wishes of the dead shall be respected. It would not be right to deny his requests." They filled the baskets with fresh water, fastened the door of the lodge, and left. Since that time people have never refused the requests of the dying as to what they wanted buried with them. The people moved some little distance away. One day a few children played near Coyote's lodge. When they returned, they told their parents that they had heard the sound of boiling food within the lodge. Their parents scolded them, saying, "You must not say that. It was not the sound of boiling you, heard, it was our friend's ghost." When Coyote said that the noise of boiling water was produced by his ghost, he intended to deceive the people.
After Coyote had eaten all the berries, roots, and other provisions, he set out for Skalspi'lem (the Kalispel country). When he arrived there, he defecated three or four times, and asked his excrements what they would be.3 The first said, " I shall be a bark canoe." The next one said, "I shall become a Buffalo-robe, clothes of embroidered buckskin, and blue blankets." The last one said, " I shall become a head of very long, fine hair." Coyote put on the clothes and the head of hair, pushed the canoe into the water, and embarked. He paddled downstream, and arrived opposite Mouse's house. Here he made a long sweep with his paddle, and turned his canoe for the shore. This caused an eddy, which is there at the present day. The children at the house saw him, and cried, "A stranger is approaching in a canoe!"
The people ran out to look. They said, "He looks like a Kalispel." They hailed him, and he answered, "Mal kolenamal kolen a kol skalsi'ulk!"4 They did not understand him, and called out Mouse, who knew all languages. She said, "He says he has come from the Upper Kutenai to see the house in which his friend died." The people whispered, "That is his friend, the Kutenai. The dead one said he would come." The man asked if Coyote had left any children; and they said, "One daughter." He asked to see her, so they brought her out. He asked her if her father had told her anything, and she told him what he had said. He then told her that he was the man of whom her father had spoken. The people then accepted him as the girl's husband. They drew up the canoe, and carried all the robes up the steep bank, and Mouse divided them among the people.
At night Coyote lay with the girl. In the morning she felt itchy around the groins, and on examining herself found some Coyote hair there. That night the people danced to celebrate the occasion. They danced in a circle around the fire. Prairie-Chicken talked while dancing, and nearly mentioned Coyote's name. Again he almost pronounced Coyote's name, but corrected himself. He was referring to the stranger who had married their daughter. Coyote called out to him, "Be careful! And do not mention the name of the dead." Most of the people knew now that he was Coyote. They said, "We shall dance three times around the fire. The fourth time, when opposite the door, we shall all call out and run." They did so; and when opposite the door, they all called out, "Coyote has married his own daughter!" Then they ran out and scattered. Coyote became angry, and pursued them with a stick, saying, "I told you not to do this. I will teach you a lesson for this." He transformed them into birds.
Coyote's daughter was ashamed. She ran out of the lodge and jumped into the middle of the river. She was transformed into a rock, which retains the shape that she had when she fell into the water. She lies there with legs spread out, her face turned upstream. Coyote said, "Bad salmon shall swarm around her belly and privates. Henceforth women, when ashamed, will commit suicide by jumping into the river."
1 His youger brother or younger cousin; Wolf was his elder brother.
2 Thompson JE 8 : 300; Shuswap E 2 : 639; Wishram PAES 2 : 105; coast tribes RBAE 31 : 586 (No. 28); Assiniboine, Cree, PaAM 4 : 124; Gros Ventre PaAM 1 : 124; Arapaho FM 5 : 82; Shoshoni PaAM 2 : 248.
3 BBAE 59 : 294 (note 5).
4 The last word means "Upper Kutenai." The rest of the sentence is said to be gibberish spoken by Coyote, who pretended to be speaking Kutenai.
