(7) COYOTE, FOX, AND PANTHER.
(continued)Night came, and Panther asked Coyote to go to bed with him. When they were in bed, Coyote drew away from him, saying, "I am a maiden and have never known man. I am afraid and ashamed. I am also thinking of my parents. If you will give me a pack of food to take to my parents three successive days, I will be yours. By that time my parents will be supplied with food, so that I shall not have to worry about them, and I shall have become used to you." Panther agreed to this, and on the following morning Coyote carried a pack of food to his starving younger brother.
Prairie-Chicken, who was a wise person, was living among these people. He said to the others, "Our chief is a great man, but he has made a grave mistake. His wife is not a woman, she is Coyote." This was the third day, and Coyote had returned from carrying his third load to his home. He knew what Prairie-Chicken had said. Now, Prairie-Chicken and others made, a sweat-house, and invited Panther to sweat with them. They were going to tell him who his wife really was, and they intended to purify him. When Panther was inside, and they were about to tell him who his wife was, Coyote ran about above the sweat-house and howled like a coyote. He shouted, "You will never have a good wife, Panther, you bad warrior, you bad man of the warpath!" Panther was ashamed, and said nothing.
Coyote was travelling about, and went northward from the Salish to the Blackfoot country. He found the skeleton of an old buffalo bull. He urinated on the skull and passed on. Presently he heard a noise like wind behind him. He looked back, but saw nothing. The noise grew louder, and he looked again. He saw a buffalo-bull approaching at full speed. It was the bull whose skull he had insulted. Coyote ran away, but the Buffalo gained on him. He saw a large boulder, and ran for it. He ran round and round the stone, the Buffalo at his heels. Coyote was exhausted, and shouted, "Why do you chase me?" The Buffalo replied, "Because you urinated on my head while I was dead." Coyote said, "What killed you?" Buffalo answered, " I became old, and a younger bull killed me. My horns were dull." Coyote said, "If you will promise not to hurt me, I will sharpen your horns after I have had a rest." Buffalo stopped. Coyote gathered pitchy roots of the yellow pine, which have sharp points, and attached them to the ends of Buffalo's horns. Then he told him to go to an old log and to toss it. He said, "Go and try that old log; and if you can toss it without breaking the points of your horns, they are strong enough. If they break, I will make them over." Buffalo did as directed, and his horns stood the test. He was very glad, and said to Coyote, "I will be your friend. I have been dead a long time. My sna'qu,2 who took my wives, is somewhere around. Let us go and find him! I will kill him and take back the women, and will give some of them to you." Coyote was glad, and agreed to go with him. On the plain they found Buffalo's enemy surrounded by a band of women. Buffalo said, "That is he, and these are all my wives. Hide here, and I will go and fight him. If he overcomes me, you must run away, for he will kill you if he sees you. If I vanquish him, then come to me." Buffalo ran forward, and attacked the bull and tore him in two. Coyote went to Buffalo, who said, "Friend, pick out one of these women, whichever you like." Coyote replied, "Pick out a fat one for me. My home is far away, and she will get thin while travelling with me." Buffalo picked out a very fat one, and said, "This one will be your wife. You must not sleep with her for three nights. After that everything all be well, and you may do as you wish." Coyote started homeward with his new wife. The second night he said to himself, "The time that he named is too long. No one since the beginning of the world has had a wife for three nights without sleeping with her." He seized his wife, and would have had connection with her, but she became invisible and returned to her band. Coyote thought she must have gone home, so he went back. He found Buffalo-Bull, and said to him, "My wife did not like me; the second night she ran away." He did not tell Buffalo that he had disobeyed his orders. Buffalo was angry, and said, "Your wife is here. You did not treat her right. You did not do what I told you. However, since you are my friend, I will give her back to you. Now, you must remember, three days." This time was sufficient to cross the mountains. Coyote was going to the Upper Kootenai or Pend d'Oreille country. He abstained for three nights; then he lay with his wife, and was glad. On the succeeding day he was hungry he looked at his wife, and thought how fat she was. He said to himself, "My wife is only a trouble to me. I will kill and eat her." He said to her, "Go up that defile. I will go around the other way hunting." Coyote ran around the hill, and met his wife as she came up the defile. From above he shot her twice, and killed her. Now, he cut her up, and found that she was very fat.
1 BBAE 59 : 295 (NOTE 1); this volume, p. 32
2 Name applied in Thompson and some other interior Salish dialects to the person who steals and afterwards lives with another man's wife, etc.
