Traditions of the Thompson River Indians (cont.)
4. CUKATA'NA ; OR, THE COYOTE'S DOG.
[Nkamtci'nemux and Cawa'xamux.)
One day the Coyote was travelling around the country, when suddenly at no great distance he heard a jingling noise. He looked in the direction whence the sound came, and saw a man approaching, with a dog. This man carried a large staff in his hand, and the dog which he led was of immense size and ferocious aspect. The vote thereupon defecated. He turned around and asked his excrements the name of the man who was advancing towards them. The excrements said, "He is a cannibal;" whereupon the Coyote said, "Very well! Get inside again. Your skin may become cold." the excrements obeyed. As the man approached nearer, he heard a cry continually in a gruff voice, as he turned his head from side to side: "I eat people, I eat people!" He also noticed that the man wore necklaces of human finger and toe nails, and that his dog wore a collar of the same material, which, like the necklaces, made a jingling noise. The Coyote thereupon defecated again, and transformed his excrements into a large dog, which had arrow-heads all over his body instead of hair. Then, tying a string around the dog's neck, he advanced to meet the Cannibal, crying as he went, "I eat people!" and imitating the Cannibal's actions in every way, whilst the arrow-heads on his dog rattled as they went along. When met, the Coyote challenged the Cannibal, saying, "Who are you, that say you eat people?" The Cannibal, who hitherto had pretended not to have seen the Coyote, now looked up, saying, "Who are you that say, that I do not eat people? I eat people and animals." The Coyote answered, "I do not believe you. I alone eat people." But the Cannibal reiterated his former statement, whereupon the Coyote said, "We will soon see who of us eats people. Let us vomit." To this proposition the Cannibal agreed. Then the Coyote said, "Let us shut our eyes until we finish vomiting, when I will open them to see the results." The Cannibal shut his eyes, and began vomiting large pieces of human flesh and venison. The Coyote also vomited, but only produced a lot of swamp grass, and other material of that description. Pretending still to be vomiting, the Coyote reached over and took the Cannibal's vomit, and placed it in front of himself, whilst he placed his own in front of the Cannibal. Then the Coyote said, "Let us open our eyes." The Cannibal was astonished when he saw that before him there was nothing but swamp grass, whilst his antagonist had evidently vomited large quantities of human flesh. The Coyote then cried, "I knew that you lied. I alone eat people. You eat nothing but swamp grass and herbs." This filled the Cannibal with chagrin, and he answered never a word.
The Coyote then proposed that the two dogs should fight for the mastery. To this the Cannibal answered, "It is no use for your dog to fight with mine, because mine will tear him to pieces." The Coyote answered, "Oh, no my dog can easily beat yours. Come, Cukata'na, let us see what you can do!" They set their dogs at each other, and forthwith ensued a fierce fight. Whenever Cukata'na's tail came in contact with trees or bushes, they were immediately cut in two, and fell. The Cannibal's dog only hurt himself when he bit Cukata'na, on account of the arrow-heads which covered his body, and before long he was cut in pieces. After the fight the Cannibal said, "I should like to get your dog. He is a wonderful beast." To which the Coyote answered, "If you will give me your staff, I will let you have my dog." Now, the Cannibal's staff was fraught with magic, and the knowledge of this made the Coyote anxious to obtain it. The Cannibal agreed to the proposal. "Now," said the Coyote, "you will have to tell me how to use it." The Cannibal said, "All you have to do is to cry "pumm!" at the same time striking the end of it heavily on the ground, when immediately a deer's carcass will lie before you; but do not strike it more than once, or it will not work." Then they separated and no sooner was the Cannibal out of sight than the Coyote tried the staff, finding that it did exactly as its former owner had said; therefore he was well pleased, and traveled on his way. Whenever he felt hungry, he struck the staff on the ground, thereby causing a deer to appear, of which he would eat until satisfied. Meanwhile the Cannibal went on his way, much pleased with the dog, which he led by his side. At nightfall he camped near a clump of trees, and tied his valuable dog up to one of them. In the morning when he awoke, he found nothing but some Coyote excrement in the place where the dog had been.
Not long afterwards the Coyote said to himself, "Why should I be restricted to only striking the staff once on the ground? One deer at a time does not satisfy me. I will have quantities of deer." Whereupon he began striking the staff repeatedly on the ground, and each time he did so a deer's carcass fell there. I'll keep on striking faster and faster; and as fast as he struck the deer dropped down; and in a short time they were piled around him in great heaps, so that he was nearly smothered; but his greed was insatiable, and as long as he could move his arm he continued to strike, saying, "I will have quantities of deer. Nothing less than quantities will satisfy me." At last the falling deer covered him up entirely, and he was no longer able to move his arm or staff. Then suddenly all the deer came to life, and began to jump on him and kick him, so that he was soon knocked senseless. When he gained consciousness, he groaned with pain, for all his bones were sore with bruises. He looked around, and neither deer nor staff was to be seen. Then he felt quite crestfallen; he made off home as his bruised body would allow him.77
