Cricket and Grasshopper were half-brothers. Cricket went to hunt, and found a spot where the grass was nice and green. Through this place ran a trail which was cut deeply by the tracks of heavy animals. Cricket fell into one of these.
After a while he heard the tramp of a buffalo bull. Just as the bull was about to step on him, he rattled his wings. This frightened the bull so, that he ran down the road and jumped blindly over the cliff. Thus he was killed. Cricket ran after him, and saw what had happened. He descended, and began to feast on his horn.
Grasshopper searched for Cricket, and, seeing the fresh buffalo tracks, he thought that his brother must be dead. He cried aloud, and Cricket heard him. He called to him to come down and eat. They were enjoying their feast, when they heard a whining cry. It was Coyote, who was mourning for the buffalo. "Oh, my brother is dead!" he wailed. When he looked over the cliff, he spoke to Cricket, and told him that the buffalo was his half brother. He begged Grasshopper and Cricket to allow him to carry them away. Through his magic power he obtained their consent, and he carried them on his back to the green meadow. He left them, and returned to the buffalo.
Cricket and Grasshopper were suspicious and flew back. They met Coyote, who was returning to the buffalo. He was displeased to see them, and compelled them to go back. By his will power he caused them to wish to stay in the meadow. Then he returned to the dead buffalo.
Coyote cut up the meat and built a fire to cook some of it.1 While he was busy, an old, old woman came along, and told him that he was too great a chief to prepare his own food. She flattered him, and persuaded him to allow her to work for him. He lay down with one eye open. When all was ready, he closed both eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the old woman running off with the meat. He changed her into a rolling stone.
Then she took revenge by pursuing him. He ran and ran. She followed. He was tired, and ran into a badger hole. The stone rolled on to the mouth of the hole and penned him in.
Coyote thought of his magical power. He wished for five things, -- a crowd of Indians, about twelve dogs, twelve tents, and a dozen canoes. These were to be crossing a wide river in the canoes.
The noise of the moving people was audible at the place where the boulder was. Coyote wished the rock to become a woman again, and she began to move. Then she arose, and went off to see what caused the noise. She was the grandmother of Cricket and Grasshopper. Coyote came out of the hole and staggered away.
Northern-Lights had five sons, -- Cold, Colder, Coldest, Extreme Cold, and Most-Extreme-Cold. The youngest son acted as scout. He seared the leaves and grass, and returned to report that he had gone as far as he dared. Then the eldest son would finish the work. The other sons staid in the north with their parents.
They lived in an ice-lodge, and could not endure heat of any kind. They were jealous of Extreme-Cold and guarded him well. By and by Extreme-Cold became restless and travelled southward. His mother, Northern-Lights, warned him not to speak to any human being. He would kill every one he met. The Indians were much troubled by him, as he came at any season, whenever he wished. Therefore the great chief called a council to try and regulate the season.
The people could not devise any way of reaching the lodge of Cold. Finally South-Wind (Cha-helt), a shaman of great power, was selected to attack him. He set out, and saw Extreme-Cold approaching. Everything perished before him. When he met South-Wind, he tried to exercise his power, but it did not avail him. Nobody had ever been able to withstand him. South-Wind held out his hand and addressed Cold as his nephew. He said that he lived in the south, and that Northern-Lights was his sister. He asked the way to his sister's house. Cold consented to take him there.
When they reached the ice-lodge; Cold was full of steam. They went in, and South-Wind claimed to be the brother of Northern Lights. She said she did not remember him, and her husband declared that they had no relatives. They let him stay all night, and planned to freeze him while he slept. Then the Cold family went to sleep. South-Wind gathered pitch-wood and set it on fire. It thawed everything around it, and the Cold family perished in the flames. The shaman broke the power of the cold, and thus the seasons were regulated.
An old woman (Sti'mtimä) had warned her children, Chipmunk and Meadow-Lark, not to go too far into the woods, because a hairy monster might kill them. One day the children disobeyed. The monster shot Chipmunk, and, when trying to seize him, scratched his back. The boy made his escape and hid in his grandmother's tent. She put him first into a basket, then into a bag, but he would not sit still. Soon the monster Pcua'nitim arrived, and searched for Chipmunk. The old woman denied having seen him. The boy's sister, Meadow-Lark,4 flew to the pole of the tent, and sang, "Look in the clam-shell under the blanket in the bosom of grandmother!" The monster took out the shell and found Chipmunk.
At the same time he saw that the skin of the old woman was very fair.5 He asked her, "What did you do to make your skin so white?" She replied that she dropped hot pitch on it. He asked to be treated in the same way. The old woman heated some pitch and held the monster down with two forked sticks. Then she poured the pitch over him, so that he died.
1 See BBAE 59 : 295.
2 RBAE 31 : 732.
3 BBAE 59 : 306.
4 Meadow-lark had been bribed with a string of beads, that may still be seen around her neck.
5 BBAE 59 : 309; RBAE 31 : 762.
