Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/617

 Some Coyote Stories from the Maidu Indians. 269

I have no tobacco." The Coyote answered, "Why, yes, you have; you have some in that little sack." The Mole repeated that he had no tobacco, that there was none in the sack. " Let me look in the sack," said the Coyote. "No, you can't look at it," said the Mole. " Well, then, if you won't let me, I will take it away from you," and the Coyote grabbed the sack, and took it away. He opened it, and found that it was full of fleas. They jumped all over him, and began to bite him. The Coyote cried out, " Take it back, Cousin, take it back," but the Mole had run to his hole, and disappeared. The Coyote was left to howl alone. After a while he looked around, and said, " People can call me Coyote."

COYOTE AND THE GRAY FOX.

The Coyote was going up over a hill into a valley that lay on the far side, when he saw a Gray Fox coming down the valley along the foothills. The Fox kept crying out, as he thought that the Coyote would not come into the valley while he was there. The Coyote said to himself, " What can he be crying out so loudly for ? " In order to see what was the trouble, the Coyote trotted down the hill towards the Fox, and coming within a hundred yards of the Fox, said, " 1 11 bet that is my cousin." He caught up with the Fox, and asked what had been the cause of his crying and hallooing so loudly. The Fox answered that he had been gambling, and had lost his hide, which the winner had taken to make a quiver of. (This was a lie, but the Fox knew that the Coyote always believed everything he was told.) The Coyote said, " How do you fellows take your skin off in that way ?" " I cannot tell you how it is done," said the Fox, "but I could show you if I only had some one to work on." " Does it hurt much ? " asked the Coyote. " Oh, no, not generally ; if it does,' however, you have to keep perfectly still," replied the Fox. " Well, if it does not hurt much, you had better try it on me ; I want to see how it feels." Now this was just what the Fox wanted, so he said, " All right, lie down here, and I '11 see if I can do it for you." Pretty soon the Fox had all the Coyote's hide stripped off. except the tip of his nose ; when he got this far, he just broke the end of the nose off, thus killing the Coyote. Then the Fox laughed and shook the skin, saying, " I '11 make me a Coyote-quiver for my arrows out of this," and went off, leaving the Coyote lying there. By and by the Buzzard came along, and picked out the Coyote's eyes. While he was eating them, the Coyote came to life, jumped up, and cried, "Who is that that is digging my eyes out?" But his were both gone, and he could not see anything. He crawled about in despair, but soon came to a pine-tree where he found a lot of gum. He took two pieces of this, stuck them in his eye-sockets, and made

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