3. Coyote and Elk.
(cont.)When Elk caught sight of him again, he was far ahead. Coyote cried out, "You better stay where you are, Slow-Feet, for you will never overtake me! The like of you can never kill me." Elk answered, "You may boast as you like, and play what tricks you like, but I shall certainly overtake and kill you." So he gave chase again with renewed vigor. Again Coyote had recourse to the same trick; but Elk persevered in the chase, and gradually made the distance less between himself and the fugitive.
When Elk was chasing him for the fourth time, Coyote saw that he was going to be overtaken, as he felt tired and out of wind; so he pulled out four pubic hairs,1 threw them on the ground, and they at once became four tall yellow-pine trees (Pinus ponderosa),2 into one of which he climbed for refuge. Elk came up, and at once started to chop it down. When it was about to fall, Coyote jumped into the branches of another one, but Elk chopped it down too. When Elk had nearly gotten the fourth one down, Coyote cried out, "Do not kill me! I can be of service to you. Spare me, and I will be your friend. I will help you to fight your enemies." Elk said, "Do you really mean what you say?" and Coyote answered, "Yes, I will really be your friend, and will help you to fight your enemies."
Elk accepted him as an ally; and they trained themselves, and made preparations for taking the war-path. Coyote had pitch-wood fastened to his head for antlers. Elk proposed to attack his enemy single-handed; but if the latter got the best of him, then Coyote was to come to his aid. Arriving at the house of their enemy, Elk engaged him in combat and slew him. Then he took possession of his enemy's house and all his wives, as well as his own wives, which he thus got back.
When Coyote was about to depart for his own country, Elk said, "I will give you one wife3 to be food for you on your journey." Coyote departed with the woman: and the first night in camp he cut off a piece of her haunch and ate it; on the second night he cut off a larger piece; and on the third night he said to himself, "I will cut off enough to-night to appease my appetite;" so he cut a very large piece off the woman's haunch, and, having eaten it all, he felt satisfied. The fourth night the woman said to herself, "I will leave Coyote. He cuts off larger pieces every night, and makes me sore." So she deserted Coyote, who had to continue his journey alone.
1 See Shaswap p. 636.
2 This tree does not grow in the Uta'mqt country, except in the very northern portion.
3 The wives, it is said, were also Elks.
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