8. FROG AND COYOTE.
(cont.)At the head of the river he saw a lodge. He was nearly dead of thirst when he arrived; so he entered the lodge. Inside he saw a mountain-sheep-horn bucket of water, and he said to the woman, "Pass that water over to me; I have drunk a great deal of water along the river to-day, still I am very dry." So he drank up all the water.
Coyote lay down on the opposite side of the lodge from the woman, and covered his head with his blanket. But he had an eye-hole in the blanket; and he saw her rise, take the empty bucket, and dip up water from where she had been sitting. After this, Coyote arose and went out.
Near that place he spat upon some tule rushes, and told them to give war-whoops after he had re-entered the lodge. So he went again into the lodge, and soon there was a great noise of war-whoops. He said out loud to himself, "I thought I heard something when I was outside." But for all his strategy, the Frog widow would not budge from where she sat. So Coyote seized her by the arm and jerked her up. Then the water came out. When the water was running freely, he threw the woman into the stream, saying, "This is the way you will always be: whenever high water comes, it will always carry frogs down the river."
Coyote then started downstream, running as fast as he could. When he reached the place of the first raft, he found it had broken adrift. So he ran on to the next one, and found it also adrift; and the third the same, and the fourth. He reached the fifth, however, just as it was breaking loose, and managed to jump aboard. Then he went down the river on the raft. This is how Coyote recovered the water from Frog.
Grizzly-Bear was a chief, and Coyote was jealous of him. Now, Coyote had many friends who would do whatever he told them to do. He arose early in the morning, and announced that there would be a great hunt that day, and that he himself would take part in it. So the people all went out, and with them went Grizzly-Bear.
Coyote told his friends just what to do when they arrived at the hunting-grounds. He told the people that he wanted Grizzly-Bear to go up a draw between the hills, because he was a chief and the best hunting was there. Every one could scare the game towards him. He told all the people where to hunt, and he stationed six of his friends in the hunting-ground of Grizzly-Bear. Coyote had some arrows poisoned with rattlesnake-poison. He gave one arrow to each of his friends. These men waited for Grizzly-Bear with their arrows on their bows.
Coyote said to Grizzly-Bear, "If you see objects like men, do not be afraid, for they are only rocks." When Grizzly-Bear saw the men, he was afraid; but Coyote shouted to him, "Do not be at all afraid!" Grizzly-Bear went up close to the men, and they shot him with their arrows. When he was dead, they skinned him and took him into camp. The sister and wife of Grizzly-Bear were in this camp along with the six hunters.
When Coyote came into camp, he went around and made a speech to all the people, bidding them to a great feast when the game they had taken was cooked. Soon the meat was cooked and dressed up finely. Then every one was called in to the feast. The sister and wife of Grizzly-Bear were called in with the rest; and as soon as they entered, they knew from the smell that the meat was Grizzly-Bear meat. The tears rolled from their eyes; but they were afraid of Coyote, and said nothing.
The wife and sister made up their minds to get revenge. Their plan was to go with the hunters and kill them one by one. But there was a Black-Bear in camp who heard the planning of the two women, and told Coyote. As a result of this, Coyote did not send out the hunters one by one, but in bands of three and four. When the wife of Grizzly-Bear was killed, that put an end to it all. A younger brother and the sister were spared, so that there would always be grizzly bears in the country. That is the reason there are still grizzly bears.
Coyote was travelling up Snake River when he saw five Mallard Duck girls swimming near the other side. He watched them till his desires were aroused. Then he thought out a plan to satisfy himself with the eldest girl: so he lengthened his penis, and let it fall into the river and float across. Then he copulated with the eldest Mallard Duck girl. Now, these girls did not know what it was that bothered the eldest one, and they tried to pull it out, but could not. So they left the water and sat down on the bank and laughed when they could not pull the thing out. When Coyote had satisfied himself, he called over and told the girls to cut off the penis with wire grass. Then he also cut the lengthened penis near his body, and let the middle portion fall into the river, where it became a ledge.
1 See pp. 46, 90, 109, 175.
2 See RBAE 31 : 722; Shasta JAFL 23 : 29, JAFL 28 : 222; Shuswap JE 2 : 741; Thompson JE 8 : 206; Tillamook JAFL 11 : 140; Tututuni JAFL 28 : 242; Wishram PAES 2 : 11.
