1. COYOTE AND HIS SON.
At the end of five days they were ready to send him home. They had a spoon as large as a huge dish. They put him into it, and instructed him to roll over in it (whenever he felt that the spoon stopped1). He did so, and went down through the sky. After a while he struck an obstacle. He rolled over as instructed, and went through that. Five times he struck obstacles, and passed them in the same way. They were the clouds through which he was passing. Finally he struck solid ground. He rolled over again; but when he found that the spoon did not move, he knew that he had reached the earth. He untied himself and went at once to hunt deer, as he had been requested. He killed some, filled the spoon with tallow, and pulled the rope as a signal that he had arrived.
In the mean time Old-Coyote had gone home, and had taken the Duck wife, whom he deceived by pretending to be her husband. He danced all the time, and told the people that he had persuaded his father to climb up. Most of the people believed him, because he looked so different. Duck actually thought he was her husband. Beetle, however, disbelieved him. She put reeds on her back, placed her baby on them, and went away.
She left the house with her rawhide tump-line dragging behind her. She cried all the time. Coyote's son followed her. He passed ten of her camp-sites. At the last one he found his boy's bow, which he took along. At last, when looking down over a hill, he saw his wife, who was carrying the child and crying as she went along. The boy saw his father, who showed him the bow. The child cried, "Father has my bow!" The woman told him to be quiet. "Your father is dead," said she. The boy, however, insisted, while she tried to silence him. By this time Coyote's son had caught up to them. He held her by stepping on her rawhide strap. She turned back to see what held her, and saw her husband. He said, "Don't strike the boy! You are hurting him." Then they sat down, and he related to her all that had happened. She told him how the people had missed him, because without him they did not kill many deer. They said, "All Coyote did was to run ahead to start the fire with fire-sticks."
When the man had heard all this, he told his wife to wrap him up in reeds, to place the boy on top of him, and to stop at some distance from the camp of the people. She was to inform him if the people caught a fat deer. "Close the tent tightly, so that it will not be possible to look in. Then go up and take away the fattest deer," he instructed her. In order to deceive the people, she kept on crying, because, as she said, her child was hungry. It was towards evening, and still she continued to cry. The people thought that the woman was crying differently, and became suspicious. "Go and see," some one said; "look through a hole in the tent-cover." Mosquito volunteered to go. When he began to pull at the flap, the woman hit him and drove him back. After that no one else dared to make the attempt, until finally Raven decided to try. He slipped in silently under the tent, and saw Coyote's son, who was eating. Raven recognized him, went back, and told what he had seen, thus proving that Old-Coyote was a liar. The old people gave orders to everybody to shout, "Coyote's son has come back!" It had been his custom to sing every evening, and Coyote imitated him. When the people were shouting, Old-Coyote asked what the noise was about. Duck was cooking a fawn. Now the people came near and yelled the news aloud. All heard it, Coyote as well as the rest. He pulled off his clothes, jumped into the fire, and cried over his boy. Duck was ashamed and turned into a duck. She went into the river, and has been there ever since.
From that time on, Old-Coyote was treated like a slave. Coyote's son decided to take revenge.2 He went hunting on a ridge near Waka Lake, and came to a hill named Backbone (Kupkup). There, close to the river, he killed a fat deer. He butchered it and left it there. Then he went home and asked Old-Coyote to bring in the carcass. Beetle had painted a gut like a tump-line. They gave it to Old-Coyote to carry the carcass. When Old-Coyote reached the deer, he took a great piece off and ate it. Then he tied up the pack and started to carry it home. He had gone but a little way when the strap broke. His son told him to tie it together and go ahead. The strap broke five times, and finally he had nothing with which to carry his burden. He grew very tired. It was hot, and he could not go any farther. Then Coyote's son threw the backbone down the hill, saying, "Henceforth this shall be Backbone Ridge." Then Old-Coyote sat down ashamed.
1 Added by F.B. in accordance with other versions.
2 From here on in JAFL 21 : 15.
