5. COYOTE'S WARS.
(Continued)He continued his journey up the river.1 Soon he heard a woman. "Whoever you are," she said, "come and lie with me!" When he came up to her, he saw that she was a handsome girl. She had in her hand a forked white stick. Coyote asked, "Grandchild, what do you want?" She told him to look down and he would see a big Mountain-sheep. As he stooped down to do so, she pierced his neck with her forked stick, pushed him over, and killed him. She went to see whom she had killed, and saw that it was Coyote. She was afraid that his decaying body would smell, so she threw it into the river. It floated down and drifted ashore at the same place as before. Magpie pecked at his eyes and cured him. Coyote told him that he was dreaming about some woman, and Magpie told him that the woman had always been there to kill everybody. "When she does so again, climb up to her; and when she tells you to look, ask her to come down because you are tired. Then push her over and kill her. She is a mountain-sheep." Coyote answered, "That is what I thought." He went up, listened, and heard her calling him. He climbed up and pretended to be tired. He asked her for the stick. "Now, grandchild," he said, "show me where to look." She stepped to the bluff; and when she looked down, he knocked her head off and killed her. "That is easy," he said, "but hereafter when people come, they shall eat you, for from now on you shall only be a mountain-sheep."
Coyote now resumed his way upstream.2 It was not long before he met a woman who called him: "Come and lie down with me!" He looked at her, and saw that she wore a fine dress down to her waist. The girl stood on the hillside. Coyote climbed up to her. When he reached her, he asked her what she had said. "Lie with me," was the answer. When he obeyed, her sexual organs bit and killed him. The girl then dragged him to the river and threw him in, as the others had done. He floated down to the same place as on the previous occasions. Magpie found him and revived him. "You brown-eye!" Coyote said, "why are you running about here? I was just getting some girls from the head of the canyon." -- "That was the Mussel who killed you," Magpie said. "Go back and take a bone with notches in it, and then, when she lies down, run it into her and pry her open."-- "That is just what I have been thinking of doing," Coyote informed him. He went back, and the girl called to him as before, "Come and try me, whoever it is that is going up there!" Coyote went to her and killed her, as instructed by Magpie. Then he dragged her to the river and threw her in, saying, "You shall never move about again. You shall be called Mussel, and people shall eat you. Soon other people will come."
He went on up the stream. He came to an opening where he saw a fat girl. She had red paint on her dress. Coyote asked her, "Why are you sitting there?" All she answered was, "U u u!" She could not say anything else. Coyote then thought he would take her along. "Must I carry you on my back?" he asked. Her reply was, "E e e!" He lifted her up; and when he was ready to put her down, he said to her, "Let go! Here is a good place to stop." The girl, however, only tightened her hold until she choked Coyote. She recognized him, and threw him into the river. He floated down the stream until he came to Magpie, who revived him as before. Coyote said to him, "What are you waking me up for, just as I was getting the girls?" Magpie told him, "That was a leech. She has been there always. When you go back, she will be there. Ask her if she is cold, and she will say, 'E e e!' Then make a big fire, take a stick, and burn her." Coyote said, "That is just what I have been thinking." He went up, reached the woman, and said to her, "My cousin, I see you are still here. Are you not cold sitting in the spring?" -- "E e e!" was her answer. He gathered a load of wood and made a big fire. Then he pulled her toward it, and with a long stick pushed her in. When she tried to crawl out, he pushed her back and killed her. Then he said, "Your name shall be Leech. Sometimes you will get on to children and crawl into them, but not many will die from your bites. Good people are coming, and you shall not harm them."
That was the end of Coyote's journey.
After Coyote had cut the channels in the falls (probably at Dalles), he went east, and found that all the people had crossed the mountains into the buffalo country. So he followed them. After some time he came to a place where a dog was barking.3 A young woman stood nearby. When she saw Coyote, she shouted, "Come here, and shoot that wounded deer!" He went up to her, and asked, "What do you want?" She replied, "I have wounded a mountain-sheep and cannot get him. Come here, and I will show him to you." Coyote went up closer, and leaned over the cliff to see. Then she pushed him over with a forked stick that she had in her hand, and killed him. She ran down and said, "Why, that is Coyote!" She dragged him down to the river and threw him in, and took up her former place. It was her habit to kill people in this way.
1 See p. 116.
2 RBAE 31 : 809 (No. 11).
3 See pp. 116.
