Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (cont.)
[NLak·apamux'o'e and Nkamtci'nEmux.]
The Coyote was alone,39 without wife or children, and greatly desired to have a son; therefore he took a lump of clay and transformed it into a boy, whom he commanded to train himself, and to whom he gave strict injunctions not to wash himself while training. But the sun was hot, and ere long the lad wished to bathe. No sooner had he entered the water than he began to melt away, until no trace of him was left. The Coyote soon began to search for his lost son. He came to the place where the lad had been dissolved in the water. He was sorrowful, and said to himself, " My son was disobedient, and my work was poor."
He then took gum off the trees, and made from it a boy, whom he told to train, to stay in shady places, and to bathe often; but before long the lad grew tired of bathing, and of staying all the time in the shade, and longed to bask in the sun. He saw a large flat rock facing the sun, and went there to sun himself and to sleep; but he had not been there long before he incited away, and there was nothing left but a patch of pitch on the surface of the rock. The Coyote found him, and, being sorrowful, said to himself, "My son was disobedient, and my work was poor."
He then took a piece of white stone40 and threw it against the rocks several times, but the stone did not break; therefore he was well pleased, and transformed it into a boy. He told the lad to train, to wash often, and also to sun himself often. The boy while training did as commanded, but neither the water nor the sun had any effect on him; therefore the Coyote was well pleased with the son he had created. The boy grew rapidly, and ere long became a man.
The Loon and the Mallard Duck41 saw that the Coyote's son was goodly, and well-skilled in all arts, therefore they betrothed their infant daughters to him. These girls, one of whom was dark-skinned and the other fair, very soon matured into good-looking, industrious women, and in due course of time became the young man's wives. Soon the Coyote became jealous of his son's pretty wives, and coveted them for himself, and devised a plan whereby he might possess them. Eagle plumes were then scarce, and consequently highly valued; so he defecated on the ground, and turned his excrement into an eagle's nest42 with eaglets in it. He then made a tree grow underneath it, so that the nest was lifted up, and placed on the top of the tree, the trunk of which was straight and smooth, without branches, excepting the bushy top. He then called his son, and said to him, "I will show you where you can get eagle's feathers. Come with me." The Coyote took him to the tree, and, pointing out to him the eagle's nest on the top, said, "Climb for it. I will help you."
