Coyote was travelling, and came near to where the Ice people lived. They killed Indians by means of cold weather, cold winds, and ice. They loved the cold. Many people had been killed by them.
Coyote determined to kill them, but did not know how to do it. He defecated, and asked his excrements what he should do.2 They told him, "The three Ice or Cold people are very powerful. When you reach their house, you must address them as relatives. Call the man brother-in-law. When you address them, call the husband xwexwens-takain, the wife xwixwemkellks, and the daughter le'luaken."
There was much snow on the ground, and the weather was very cold. Coyote defecated three times. There were three pieces of dung. He asked the first one what it would be. It answered, "I shall be fresh service-berries. The Ice people give berries to their daughter." The second one said, "I shall be heat of the sun, which will soon melt the ice. When it begins to drip, say your house is very hot; then open your shirt and blow on your body." The last one said, "I shall be ka’ma."3
When Coyote reached the house of these people, he was nearly frozen. Coyote went in and acted as directed. The Ice people said, "This man must be a relative. He knows our names and all we do. Besides, nobody ever came in here without dying. He must be one of the Ice people." Coyote surprised them by complaining of the heat. Before long the ice of the house began to melt and drip. Coyote opened his shirt and blew on his body, saying, "What a hot house you have!" The Ice people danced and sang and blew to make it colder, but the house continued to melt. Coyote said, "I cannot stand the heat." He went outside and set fire to the dead yellow pine-needles which, on his way in, he had left at the door. He threw the burning needles all over the outside of the house. Meanwhile the heat of the sun was melting the house from within. Soon it was burned. Cold and his wife were killed by the heat. Their daughter rushed out and escaped. Had Coyote succeeded in catching her too, there would have been no cold or ice in the world now. Coyote transformed her, saying, "Henceforth you shall be known as Cold, but you shall not be able to kill people, excepting once in a while an exhausted hunter."
Coyote's wife was the Short-Tailed Mouse. He said to her, "Wife, I have no relatives to cry and feel sorry, if I die. I am going to see the people on the Plains, who do much fighting." He went to the Blackfoot country. When he reached the eastern foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, he saw from the edge of a hill great numbers of people with horses pitching tents. He said to his wife, " I am ashamed to go among these people alone." He defecated three times, and asked his excrements what to do.4 They said, "You are bothering us again." Coyote spat in the air, and said, "if you do not answer me quickly, you will dry up and die." His excrements became afraid, and answered at once. Then he asked them what they would be. The first one said, "I shall be a band of twenty horses." The second said, "I shall be fine clothes." The last said, "I shall be a fine head of hair." Coyote put on the fine clothes and fine hair, and he mounted his wife on a large pinto horse. The Blackfeet saw him coming, and said, "Here is a great chief coming to visit us." He gave most of his horses as presents to the chiefs. He stopped there three days, and was well entertained. On the third day he told his wife, "Be very careful not to throw any stones at our horses." That day his wife became angry. Coyote had talked angrily and nastily to her. He was mounted at the time. She struck his horse with a stone, and immediately it turned into excrement. He fell down in the midst of it, and stuck there up to his waist. Now the people found him out. They said, "It is Coyote." They struck camp, and left him still cleaning himself of the filth. They left at their stakes the horses which he had given to them, and there they became excrement.5
Coyote and Fox were living together. They were friends, and always had plenty to eat. Fox used to procure game, for he was a good hunter. Once upon a time he had bad luck, and could not get any game. Perhaps he had been bewitched. The friends began to starve. Fox said to Coyote, "You are powerful and gifted. Try to break our spell of bad luck, so that we may procure game." Coyote did not answer. For three days, when he came back from hunting, Fox repeated his request. Fox thought, "Coyote will do something foolish." The fourth night Fox spoke again. Early the following morning Coyote arose, and went to wash himself at a spring near by. He returned to the lodge, went to his pillow, and drew from under it his comb and paint-pouch. He did not speak, but dressed his hair and painted his face after the manner of women. Then he dressed himself and left the house without saying a word. He travelled about aimlessly. At last he came to the houses of many people, whose chief was Panther. Coyote asked for Panther's house, and the people pointed it out to him. He went in, and sat down alongside of Panther. He said, "I do not come here for nothing, chief. My father and mother sent me here to marry you." Panther answered, "I do not desire to act contrary to the pleasure of your parents. I will not decline their offer, if they have chosen me as their son-in-law."
1 See pp. 104•124 147.
2 BBAE 59: 294 (note 5).
3 Dead yellow pine-needles.
4 BBAE 59 : 294 (note 5).
5 Compare Blackfoot PaAM 2 : 151; Assiniboine PaAM 4: 113, 162; Menominee PaAM 13: 382.
