8. Coyote and the Women.
(cont.)They told him that they were getting ready to go to a gathering, and that the rest of the people had already departed. He said to them, "I wish to go to the gathering also. Do not leave me behind. I am your grandmother." The women said they would not desert him; but when ready to go, Coyote declared that he was unable to walk, and asked them to carry him. They said they would carry him by turns. One woman put her strap around him and carried him; but her head got sore, and she put the strap down on her breast, but it also got sore. Then Coyote said, "If you lengthen your strap and let me down lower on your back, you will not feel sore." The woman did as directed and lowered him down on her back; but she got sore again, and Coyote directed her to lower him down farther, which she did. Then, as she carried him, Coyote made his penis touch her privates from behind; and, as soon as the woman was aware of this, she dropped him on the ground, and would not carry him any more. She did not tell the other women what had happened: so another one put her strap around him and carried him on her back. He dealt with her in like manner, and also with the other two women: so all four were pregnant when they reached the place where the people were assembled.1
9. He-spit-on-her-Belly (Pitseqa'nekatem).2
(Lower Uta' niqt.)A young man lived in the mountains with his two sisters. He was a great hunter, and always had large stores of fat meat and skins in his house and caches. He bathed himself every day in a creek near by; and the needles which came off his sponge of fir-branches, and fell into the water, became dentalia (sLaq).3 Some of these be used to take home to his sisters every night. He gave them strict injunctions never to visit his bathing-place. The elder sister had told the younger one where their brother obtained his dentalia, and this made the younger girl very anxious to see the place.
One day their brother was hunting, as usual, and the sisters went out for a walk. The younger sister bothered the elder so much to show her their brother's bathing-place, that at last she assented and took her there. They picked up a great quantity of dentalia from underneath the water and carried them home.
Now, their brother, who was tracking deer, knew at once, that they had touched the dentalia ; so he became sorrowful, and went home carrying his pack of deer-meat on his back. He hung up his quiver, and left his pack on the floor of the lodge. He had made up his mind to desert his sisters for their disobedience: therefore, lifting up the fire-stone of the underground house, he went down the hole which led underneath to the lower world.1
1 Some claim that there is more of this story which relates how Coyote's eyes were passed round among all the people, and how by some means he got them back; but I was unable to find any one who knew this part of the story in detail.
2 Compare this story with No. 27, p. 77 and NO. 7, p. 36 (Coyote), Traditions of the Thompson River Indians.
3 A large variety of dentalia.