Reading Notes: Apache, Part B
Coyote Steals a Man's Wife
Story source: Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911).
This story starts out very interesting. A man was standing on a rock and it rose into the sky. The coyote stole the man's wife and moved away with her. The man remained on top of the rock where he lived alone because he could not get off of the rock. The rest of the community also moved away leaving the man on top of the rock completely alone. After a long time of living on the rock, the man got off of the rock and came into the place where the community used to be and no one was there. He went from camp fire to camp fire searching for his wife and the people who he used to live with but at each campfire they were not there and had not been there for awhile. Finally, the man reached the camp of the coyote and his wife. The coyote was out hunting but came back with a deer. The man wrapped three stones in deer fat and fed them to the coyote. The coyote was not aware he was eating stones. The coyote fell dead within a matter of time and the man and his wife moved their camp toward the east.
Story source: Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911).
This story starts out very interesting. A man was standing on a rock and it rose into the sky. The coyote stole the man's wife and moved away with her. The man remained on top of the rock where he lived alone because he could not get off of the rock. The rest of the community also moved away leaving the man on top of the rock completely alone. After a long time of living on the rock, the man got off of the rock and came into the place where the community used to be and no one was there. He went from camp fire to camp fire searching for his wife and the people who he used to live with but at each campfire they were not there and had not been there for awhile. Finally, the man reached the camp of the coyote and his wife. The coyote was out hunting but came back with a deer. The man wrapped three stones in deer fat and fed them to the coyote. The coyote was not aware he was eating stones. The coyote fell dead within a matter of time and the man and his wife moved their camp toward the east.
The coyote was a very tricky animal. He went to a prairie dog town and told all of the prairie dogs to shut their doors and come to the dance. As the prairie dogs were dancing in the circle, the coyote began to throw stones at them and kill them. The coyote told the prairie dogs that the dancing is what killed them. One of the smaller prairie dogs noticed that the coyote had a stone in his hand and told everyone. At that point all of the prairie dogs ran to get into their comes but they could not because the doors were closed. The coyote killed as many prairie dogs as he could. He brought all of the dead prairie dogs together and built a large fire and started to cook them. While he was cooking them, he decided to take a nap. A wildcat that passed by while the coyote was cooking took all of the prairie dogs off of the fire and then removed their tails and only placed the little one back on the fire. When the coyote woke up he picked the small prairie dog out of the fire and claimed that he did not need to eat that one because it was so small so he threw it away. He then reached to grab another one but there were no more in there.
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