American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) (4 page)

“Let us steal the box,” said Coyote.

“No, that would be wrong,” said Eagle. “Let us just borrow it.”

When the Kachinas were not looking, Eagle grabbed the box and flew ofl: Coyote ran after him on the ground. After a while Coyote called Eagle: “My chief, let me have the box. I am ashamed to let you do all the carrying.”

“No,” said Eagle, “you are not reliable. You might be curious and open the box and then we could lose the wonderful things we borrowed.”

For some time they went on as before—Eagle flying above with the box, Coyote running below, trying to keep up. Then once again Coyote called Eagle: “My chief, I am ashamed to let you carry the box. I should do this for you. People will talk badly about me, letting you carry this burden.”

“No, I don’t trust you,” Eagle repeated. “You won’t be able to refrain from opening the box. Curiosity will get the better of you.”

“No,” cried Coyote, “do not fear, my chief, I won’t even think of opening the box.” Still, Eagle would not give it to him, continuing to fly above, holding the box in his talons. But Coyote went on pestering Eagle: “My chief, I am really embarrassed. People will say: ‘That lazy, disrespectful Coyote lets his chief do all the carrying.’ ”

“No, I won’t give this box to you,” Eagle objected. “It is too precious to entrust to somebody like you.”

They continued as before, Eagle flying, Coyote running. Then Coyote begged for the fourth time: “My chief, let me carry the box for a while. My wife will scold me, and my children will no longer respect me, when they find out that I did not help you carry this load.”

Then Eagle relented, saying: “Will you promise not to drop the box and under no circumstances to open it?”

“I promise, my chief, I promise,” cried Coyote. “You can rely upon me. I shall not betray your trust.”

Then Eagle allowed Coyote to carry the box. They went on as before, Eagle flying, Coyote running, carrying the box in his mouth. They came to a wooded area, full of trees and bushes. Coyote pretended to lag behind, hiding himself behind some bushes where Eagle could not see him. He could not curb his curiosity. Quickly he sat down and opened the box. In a flash, Sun came out of the box and flew away, to the very edge of the sky, and at once the world grew cold, the leaves fell from the tree branches, the grass turned brown, and icy winds made all living things shiver.

Then, before Coyote could put the lid back on the box, Moon jumped out and flew away to the outer rim of the sky, and at once snow fell down from heaven and covered the plains and the mountains.

Eagle said: “I should have known better. I should not have let you persuade me. I knew what kind of low, cunning, stupid creature you are. I should have remembered that you never keep a promise. Now we have winter. If you had not opened the box, then we could have kept Sun and Moon always close to us. Then there would be no winter. Then we would have summer all the time.”

{
Miwok
}

 

Coyote is an adventurous fellow. He goes where nobody else dares to go. Coyote lived in the Village of Darkness, on one side of a mountain range. On the other side was the Village of Light. No one had ever gone over the mountains to the other side. They were afraid of what they might find there.

Coyote said to himself: “I want to find out what it is like on the far side. It might be dangerous, but I am curious. Curiosity is always getting the better of me.” So Coyote went up one side of the mountains and came down on the other. The land there was bright. It almost blinded him. He was not used to it. There were people there. They were different from the kind of people Coyote knew. They had wondrous things that the people in the Village of Darkness lacked. The people Coyote knew had never heard of such things.

Coyote crept up to the strange people’s camp. This was the Village of Light. Coyote crept unseen into the home of a chief. The chief took something out of a basket. It was Sun. At once everything was bright. The chief sent Sun on its path. After a while Sun came back. The chief put Sun back in its basket. Then, at once, everything was dark. The chief took something out of another basket. It was Moon. At once everything was bright again, but not as bright as when Sun was out of its basket. Moon made things much less bright. Moon went on its path and came back. Then Sun came out again. Coyote watched it all with astonishment. He had never believed that such things could be.

Coyote went back to his own Village of Darkness. He told the chief what he had seen. The chief would not believe him. He called Coyote a liar. Coyote said: “They have two wonderful things over there. They call them Sun and Moon. They make things bright.”

“You are dreaming,” said the chief. “You have lost your senses.”

“I will steal Sun and Moon from those strangers on the other side,” said Coyote.

The chief mocked Coyote: “We do not need those things. They are of no use to us.”

“I will find some use for them,” said Coyote.

Coyote again walked over the mountains to the Village of Light. He laid himself across the path that he knew the chief of that village would take whenever he went hunting. Then Coyote transformed himself into a dry branch. The village chief came walking along, just as Coyote had expected. He stumbled over the branch. He looked at what had tripped him. “Ah, this will go on my woodpile,” said the chief as he picked up the branch. He took it to his village.

Back at his home, the chief made a fire. He threw the dry branch into it, the branch that was Coyote. At once the branch jumped out of the fire. The chief put it back. The branch formed itself into a hoop going around the fire so that it could not be burned. The chief grabbed the branch a third time and threw it across the fire. The branch quickly stood itself on end at the side of the fire to save itself. “This is a very strange piece of wood,” said the chief. “It will not burn. We will see about that.”

Coyote used his powerful magic to make the chief drowsy. The chief had just put Sun back into its basket, but had not yet taken Moon out for its nightly journey. The chief fell asleep. He snored. His eyes were shut fast. Coyote quickly assumed his natural form. He seized both baskets and ran away with them. The chief awoke and raised the alarm. Then all his people ran after Coyote to get Sun and Moon back. Coyote is a fast runner. He managed to keep just ahead of his pursuers in spite of his heavy burden. He ran up the mountain slope and over the crest. Then he ran down to his own side.

When his pursuers reached the crest and looked down, they stopped. Before them spread the Land of Darkness. It made them afraid. “This blackness is frightful,” they said. “This land is darker than dark. How can one see in such a country? The people there must all be blind. No, we are not used to that kind of thing. We will not go down there.” So they gave up.

Coyote came back to his Village of Darkness. He went to the chief’s home. All the people followed him. He put the two baskets down in front of the chief. The chief poked them with his feet. He kicked them around a little bit. He said: “I do not trust anything coming from the other side. Everything there is bad.”

Coyote opened one bag and let Sun come out. Then everything was bright. The chief said: “I don’t like this strange thing. It is bad for the eyes. It could make us blind. We have no use for this.” But nobody paid any attention to him. All the people were happy to have light.

Then Coyote took out Moon from its bag. “This will shine in the night,” he told the people.

The chief kept grumbling: “This useless thing is also bad, though not quite as bad as the thing called ‘Sun.’ This will make people go out at night making love instead of sleeping. Then they will be too lazy to hunt or to gather food.”

But nobody listened to him. “You have done well,” the people told Coyote. Then they made him the chief.

{
Kalispel
}

Here is a moon-stealing story
.

 

Long ago, when the world was very young, the moon was a plaything of a certain tribe of animal people. One day Coyote said to Antelope, “Let our sons go out and learn how to steal the moon.”

He and Antelope lived together, and each of them had four sons. Following their fathers’ instructions, the eight young men went up into the mountains, each in a place by himself, to fast and to obtain the help of his spirit. Again and again they were sent out. At last Coyote said, “Our boys should be wise enough now to steal the moon.”

When the eight young men reached the open space on which the animal people were rolling the great shining ball, they hid themselves at one end of the play field. Now the owners of the moon knew that the boys were coming to steal it. They rolled it toward the boys, sure that it was too heavy for anyone to take away. But the Coyote brothers, one at a time, rolled it toward their home. The owners of the moon caught up with the Coyote brothers and killed them, one at a time. The Antelope brothers took the moon from the youngest Coyote, and they ran so swiftly that no one could catch them.

When they reached home and told Coyote that his four sons had been killed, Coyote began to cry loudly. “Put out the fire and give me that moon,” he said to the Antelope brothers. They obeyed him. He took the moon back to its owners, and they gave him his sons, restored to life.

One day Sapsucker said to his grandmother, “Let me go and steal the moon.” So he set out. When the moon people saw him coming, they knew his purpose and began to laugh.

“Roll the moon toward little Sapsucker,” said one of them. “Let’s see what he can do with such a big thing.”

When it reached him, he lifted it with difficulty and staggered off with it. Again the people laughed. “Let him go as far as that ridge. But if he passes over it, we will kill him.”

They did not know that Sapsucker was very clever. When they reached the top of the ridge, they saw him and the moon at the top of the next hill. He had rolled the moon down the first slope, and its momentum had carried it almost to the top of the second slope. Sapsucker flew over the valley and pushed the ball the rest of the way. The people ran after him until they were tired out, and Sapsucker rolled the moon to his home.