V. PEND D'OREILLE TALES, BY JAMES A. TEIT.
(Told by Michel Revais.1)ONCE Coyote met Wren (tseska'n), and laughed at his small bow and arrows.2
He said, "You can't shoot far with those." Wren answered, "Yes, I can shoot far. If you go to that distant ridge, I will shoot you while you are there." Coyote laughed, and said, "That ridge is so far away that we can hardly see it." Soon afterwards Coyote was walking along this ridge, and Fox was following him. He had forgotten about his talk with Wren. Presently he heard something coming, and Wren's arrow struck him in the heart. He gave two jumps and fell down dead. Fox pulled out the arrow, and jumped over Coyote, who came to life, and said, "I must have slept a long time." Fox said, "You were not sleeping, you were dead. Wren's arrow struck your heart. Why do you fool with Wren? You know he can shoot better than any one." Coyote took the arrow from Fox, and said, " I shall get even with him."Some time after this, Coyote met Wren, and proposed to gamble with him. He said, "I have an arrow which looks like yours. Now you have a chance to win it back." They played a game of throwing arrows. Coyote beat Wren every time, and won all his arrows. Then he won his bow, and later all his beautiful clothes. Wren was left practically naked. Coyote went off singing, "Alpano'n e Kalispe'" (" I won from the Kalispel "). Wren followed him at some distance.
Coyote passed by the lodge of Willow-Grouse,3 who had ten young children.
Their parents were off in the hills. Coyote asked the children, "Who is your
father?" They answered, "Toxto'xtu'su"' (Flying-Past-Head). He laughed, and said, "No, that cannot be his name." He asked the name of their mother; and they answered, Toxto'xtusêpu'scEn" (Flying-Past-between-the-Legs). He laughed, saying, "No, that cannot be her name." He went into the lodge and dug a small hole near the fire. Then he said to the children, "Carry those red bearberries into the hole, and watch me cook them for you." They did so, and crowded around the edge to watch him. He pushed them into the hole, and threw earth and hot ashes on top of them. When they were cooked, he went on. Their parents came home, and, finding their children dead, they cried. Wren came along, and asked them why they cried. They told him. Wren said, "I have a grudge against Coyote, too. I want my things which he won from me. If you can get them back for me, I will restore your children to life." Coyote was then passing over a high ridge, close to a steep cliff. Grouse made a detour, and hid ahead of him on the upper side. When Coyote was opposite them, one flew out suddenly at his head. He bent back over the cliff to avoid it. Then the other flew between his legs. He lost his balance and fell over the cliff. Grouse hastened, and plucked him as he was falling. They plucked away his bow and arrows and quiver and clothes, and gave them back to Wren, who then revived the Grouse children. Coyote was killed by the fall; but Fox found him, and brought him back to life by jumping over him.2. COYOTE AND THE SNAKE-MONSTER.4
There was a huge rattlesnake-monster which occupied the Jocko valley. Its tail was at S.nlpo' (Come-Out or Emerge), a place near Evero; and its mouth, at Skul'lo', near Ravalli. Its stomach was near Jocko. It swallowed people without their knowing it. They walked into its mouth, and passed on to its stomach, thinking they were going through a valley, and not knowing that they were inside a monster. When they reached the stomach, they became sick, and before long died.
Coyote was travelling with Fox, and reached that district. The people told him of the monster, and he said he would go and kill it. Coyote's cousin Fox,5 who was his travelling-companion, advised him not to go, because he would be killed. Coyote, however, started; and when near the monster's head, he cut two long-tamarack poles, and carried them along on his shoulder. He thought, "I will use these in case he tries to close his mouth on me." He passed through the monster's mouth without knowing it. When he reached a place near Arlee, he saw a number of people in all stages of dying. He asked them what they were doing there; and they answered, "The monster has killed us." He said, "Where is he? I am looking for him. I don't see anything here to kill you." They answered, "You have been swallowed. You are in its stomach now." Then he placed his poles upright.
Therefore two tamaracks grow at this place today. Not very far from there
he saw the monster's heart hanging down. Coyote was wearing a sharp arrow-stone fastened upright on his head. He began to dance; and whenever he jumped up, the dagger pierced the heart.6 Thus he kept on dancing until he had killed the monster. Its heart may still be seen in the shape of Butte, near Jocko. Coyote supported its mouth so that it could not close, and opened its tail. The cut he made may be seen as a canyon near Evero. Thus Coyote made it possible for people to pass through without hindrance or harm. When he had finished, the valley was as we see it today.1 The narrator of these tales was more than seventy-five years old. He was official interpreter on the Flathead Reservation. He was one quarter French and three quarters Indian (Pend d'Oreile and Kalispel). He said the same or very similar versions of the stories he related were current among the Salish proper or Flathead, and possible the Kalispel also. Revais had a wonderful memory, and knew a great many stories, but I had no time to collect them while I was there. As a young man, he had travelled a great deal to the south and west, and was familiar with the tribes of thesse regions.
2 BBAE 59 : 283.
3 BBAE 59 : 293 (note 2).
4 RBAE 31 : 611, 659, 687, 718, 868; BBAE 59 : 288 (note 4); this volume, pp. 17, 117, 122, 148.
5 Wolf was Coyote's brother or half-brother.
6 RBAE 31 : 611.
