Page:Kutenai Tales.djvu/308

Rh to touch any one with it. When he is skinning the mangy cow, it turns into a fat buffalo. A dog tries to get some of the meat. The woman touches it with the arrow, and the dog falls down dead. WTien she touches it again, the dog revives. Coyote also kills a dog, and tries to revive it by touching it with an arrow, but he is unsuc- cessful. Tree Chief's wife carries the meat in her blanket into her tent. On the 209 following morning the blood is transformed into pemmican; the skin, into a painted blanket. Coyote is unable to imitate this feat. Coyote tries to make buffalo out of 211 buffalo chips, but is unable to do so. Finally Tree Chief gets impatient, and strikes Coyote with a firebrand, intending to kill him.

Coyote runs westward, while Tree Chief goes eastward. Tree Chief says both will 213 come back at the end of the world.

Second Version (VAEU 23).— Tree Chief is Coyote's friend. Golden Eagle asks (166) Tree Chief to marry his daughter. The two young men start, and on the way Coyote throws Tree Chief into a pit. He asks for the bird which Tree Chief carries on his head, for his blanket and saUva. He puts these on, leaves Tree Chief in the pit, and goes to the village of Golden Eagle, where he marries the girl. Tree Chief transformo himself into an infant. The owner of the pit and his wife try who can reach the child first. Tree Chief by magic makes the soil loose where the woman is digging, so that she reaches him first. When the boy is a few years old, he asks for a snare in order to catch birds. He sets it, moves his hands, and the snare is full of birds. He asks for the skin of a. buffalo calf and makes a netted ring. He tells the old people to lie down, and rolls the ring against the tent. The ring becomes a buffalo calf, which he kills. The intestines, which the woman puts away according to the boy's orders, are transformed into pemmican. The same happens to the skin of a one-year-old buffalo, which is transformed into a young bull, which he kills. He tells the old people that he is Tree Chief. He goes to the river and meets Golden Eagle's younger daughter, whom he marries. The people are starving because the buffaloes have disappeared. Tree Chief tells the hunters to wait at a buffalo drive. By kicking buffalo chips he transforms them into buffaloes, which are driven to a precipice. There are two buf- faloes for each hunter. Tree Chief selects an old lean one for himself. He tells his wife not to strike their dog. When she disobeys, the dog falls down dead. He tells her to strike the dog again, and the dog revives. Coyote is unable to imitate this. Tree Chief drives away Coyote, reminding him that he had tried to kill him.

6. Coyote AND Fox ^ (No. 1). — Coyote asks Fox for his blanket. They race. (This 1 is probably a reference to the tale of Coyote borrowing Fox's blanket and being carried away by the wind.) 2

7. Coyote and Locust (No. 2). — Coyote carries Locust. They meet a Grizzly Bear. 3 Coyote puts Locust down at the edge of a cliff. Locust scares the female Grizzly Bear, who falls down the cliff and dies.^ Coyote and Locust eat the body. Later on they meet the male Grizzly Bear. Coyote is put down and turns into a stump, which

the Grizzly Bear tries to bite. Coyote is retransformed and gives fat to the bear to eat. He says it is beaver fat. The bear asks whether they have seen the female 4 Grizzly Bear. After first denying to have seen her. Coyote tells the Bear that he

1 Okanagon (Hill-Tout JAI 41:152). Shuswap (Boas, Sagen 6; Teit JE 2:634, 742). Thompson (Teit MAFLS 11:8). 2 The idea of a person being frightened by the sudden flying up of birds or by a sudden movement, and caused to fall down a cliff, is rather widely spread. Assiniboin (Lowie PaAM 4:110). Lillooet (Teit JAFL 25:305, an incomplete version of the story of Coyote and Grouse). Ojibwa ((Jones PAES 7:43, 191, 415). Okanagon (Gatschet, Globus 52:138). Pawnee (Dorsey CI 59:459). Pend d'Oreilles (Teit MAFLS 11:114). Sanpoil (Gould MAFLS 11:101). Shuswap (Teit JE 2:629, 740).