3. COYOTE AND THE GEESE.
(Continued)The brothers made their home there. They built a sweat-house and repaired their bows, the strings and backing of which they had eaten. The old man told them that there were many deer in the canyons. They set out before daylight and killed ten, which they carried home. They went out to hunt every day, and had plenty of meat, part of which they dried.
The father of Winter sent her to Summer to find out whether the brothers had gone there. When Summer's youngest daughter saw her coming, she told her father, who said, "Why is that dirty girl coming here?" He placed a piece of meat near the fire. When Winter opened the door and entered, he threw the meat at her. It stuck to her exposed privates. She left the house biting off a piece of the meat. When she returned home, she found her father sitting in the house. She threw the meat at him, just as Summer had done to her. He picked it up likewise and ate it.
He decided, however, to wage war on Summer. He told his youngest daughter to summon her sisters. They drove her away with a stick, and refused to go. Therefore the giant and his youngest daughter prepared to go without them. They took a white bob-tailed horse made of ice, ice-spears, and ice-arrows. Ice was hanging all over their bodies. They came to Summer's house, the girl riding behind the old man. Summer saw a fog, and knew what was coming. When his daughter told him that they were close by, he shook his blanket,1 and all the ice melted and fell off from their bodies. When they came nearer, Summer said to them, "You have no power. Take all the meat you want." They loaded their horse and went home.
That is the end of the story.
Coyote came back westward through Idaho. On his way he heard that a monster was swallowing the people. Coyote tied himself with a wild grape-vine in three different places, and then crawled over the mountains to see the monster. He hid behind a bundle of grass that he carried in front of himself. He had pitch and fire-sticks in his quiver. He met the monster at Kamiah. Then he mocked him, saying, "Iltswe°tsix [that was the monster's name], let us swallow each other!" The monster was so surprised that he did not know what to say. He told Coyote to swallow him first. Coyote, however, said that he preferred him to begin, but finally he gave in and agreed to swallow the monster first. Coyote drew in his breath, and the monster could hardly withstand the suction. He said, "Doggone you! you are stronger than I thought." Coyote then said, "Now it is your turn." The monster tried hard to move Coyote, but he was tied fast. Coyote then tried a second time, and was able to move the monster a little. When the monster tried again, one of the ropes that held Coyote broke. The next time all the ropes broke, and Coyote was drawn towards the monster. He argued with him, because they could not agree on the way Coyote should enter his body. The monster tried to get him to go in through the anus or the ears; Coyote, however, insisted on going in through the mouth, and at last the monster consented. He opened his mouth, and Coyote went in. Inside he met Rattlesnake, who wanted to bite him. Coyote trampled him under foot, thereby flattening his nose, and reviled him for not biting the monster. Farther in he met Grizzly-Bear, and reproached him for not killing the monster. Finally he reached the place where the monster's heart was hanging. He stabbed it with his knife. The monster now tried to coax Coyote to come out. He refused, however, and proceeded to build a fire directly under the heart. Then he cut it. He ordered the people to get ready to step out before the monster should die. They went out, Coyote last of all. The monster may be seen at Kamiah to-day, and the heart is there too.
Then Coyote decided to cut up the monster and to divide it among the people.3 Out of its feet he made the Blackfeet. The Crow, the Sioux, and the Bannock were all made out of different parts of its body. While Coyote was standing there, some one said, "What did you take yourself?" and he replied, "To be wise (?)." Then he called for water. He washed his hands and scattered the water, saying, "You shall be the Nez Percès, a small tribe, but you shall be the most powerful of all the people."
Coyote (itcaiyaiya) came from the west. He knew that there was a monster that was killing many people. He came to Walawa'maxe (a rugged and bare mountain). He climbed it and looked eastward. He stopped on the mountain for a time. He took some pitch from a tree, gathered some roots for a fire, and made five stone knives. Then he started towards Salmon River. If he had climbed the hills, the monster would have seen him: therefore he asked the hills to split open at the bottom and allow him to go through unseen.
Finally he came to White-Bird Mountain, on Salmon River. He tied a string around Mount Walawa'maxe, another one he tied to Seven-Devils Mountain, and a third one to still another mountain. When he had done so, he put a band of brush (?) grass around his head. Then he went up a hill and looked for the monster, which could see all over the world and could discern even the smallest objects. He knew that Coyote was coming, and was sore afraid. He had not seen him yet, but was keeping a sharp lookout.
1 The little girl used a deer's liver, the old man a deer's lungs, to drive them away.
2 RBAE 31 : 687; also Spinden JAFL 21 : 14; this volume, pp. 17, 115, 117, 122.
3 BBAE 59 : 289 (note 1); this volume, p. 122.
