How the Coyote Made the World
(Pit River Nation) Jaime De Angulo
It seems like there was nothing everywhere but a kind of fog. Fog and water mixed, no land anywhere, and this here Silver Fox......
-----You mean Coyote?
-----'No,no,I mean Silver Fox'. Coyote comes later. You'll see,but right now, somewhere in the fog,Silver Fox was wandering and feeling lonely.
Tsikuellaaduwi maandza tsikualaasa .
Silver Fox was feeling lonely." I wish I would meet someone", thinking to itself, Silver Fox did. And was walking along in the fog. And met Coyote.
"I thought I was going to meet someone" Silver Fox said. The Coyote looked at Fox, but didn't say anything.
"Where are you traveling ?" said Fox.
"But Where Are YOU Traveling?....& Why Do You Travel Like That?" the Coyote replied.
"Because I am worried" (Fox)
"I also am wandering" says Coyote " I also am worrying and traveling"
. "I thought I would meet someone. Let's you and I travel together, its better if two travel together" Fox said
and......................................................
Coyote asks"What are we going to do now?".
"What do you think?"
"I don't know"
"Well then,I'll tell you:
LET'S MAKE THE WORLD"
" And how are we going to do that?" Coyote asks
"WE WILL SING" Fox replies.
So, there they were singing up there in the sky. They were singing and stomping and dancing around each other in a circle.
Then the Fox thought in its mind:
CLOMP OF SOD,come!
!That's the way Fox made it come:
by thinking.
Pretty soon Fox had it in its hands.And was singing,all the while in its hands. They were both singing and stomping. All of a sudden the Fox threw that clump of sod, that tsapettia,threw it down into the clouds.
"Don't look down" Fox to Coyote "Keep on singing! Shut your eyes, and keep them shut until I tell you"
So they kept on singing and stomping around each other in a circle quite a while. Then the Fox spoke " Now, look down there"
"What do you see?"
"I see something...........I see something.............but I don't know what it is"
"All right.Shut your eyes again!" Now they started singing and stomping again, and Fox thought and wished:"Stretch! Stretch!"
"Now look down again. What do you see?"
"Oh It's getting bigger!
" Shut your eyes again , and don;t look down!"
And they went on singing and stomping up there in the sky.
" Now look down again"
"OOOH! , Now that's big enough!" says the Coyote.
That's the way they made the world. Then they both jumped down on it and stretched it some more. Then they made mountains and valleys; they made trees and rocks and everything. It took them a long time to do all that!.
-----------Didn't they make people, too?
-----------'No. Not people. Not Indians. The Indians came much later, after the world was spoiled by a crazy woman, Loon.
But that's a long story ............ I'll tell you someday. ' |
