American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) by Richard Erdoes, Alfonso Ortiz Read Free Book Online

behind. Grizzly Bear was going along in the tracks of Coyote. Coyote heard him panting. He was getting near him. He thought he would catch up with him on the right side. Then Coyote jumped along his side. Then he jumped around on the left side of Grizzly Bear. Coyote went past. Grizzly Bear was going along, and Coyote did the same again.
    Grizzly Bear thought: “Now I’ll catch Coyote. I’ll bite him.” Coyote jumped along on the other side. Then Grizzly Bear turned to the right side quickly to catch him, but again he could not catch him. Grizzly Bear went along a short distance and saw Coyote. He was going along tired. Grizzly Bear overtook him. Then Coyote was looking from one side to the other. His tongue was lolling. There was a big stone.
    Coyote thought: “Now Grizzly Bear will bite me.” Grizzly Bear chased him around the stone. Then Grizzly Bear was about to catch him, and Coyote was out of breath. Coyote fell down there. He lay there for a time, and thought: “Why doesn’t Grizzly Bear bite me?” Then he felt something on his hands. He looked at it, and saw that he had his hands in the horns of a Buffalo Bull. He looked at the Grizzly Bear. He was standing by his feet. Coyote stood up quickly and ran after him. He spoke to him in the way a bull bellows. The bear trembled. Then Coyote knew that Grizzly Bear was afraid of him. He pursued him. The way Grizzly Bear had done, that way Coyote did to him. He also did the same. Grizzly Bear looked from side to side over his shoulders.
    There was a river. Grizzly Bear started to swim. Coyote put out one of his hands with the horn where Grizzly Bear was swimming ahead. He hit him with it. He hit his backside, and he put out the other one and with it also he hit the backside. Grizzly Bear swam across there.
    Coyote sat down. When Grizzly Bear was across, he looked back. Coyote was sitting down. Coyote said: “Grizzly Bear, you were going to bite me. It should be once that Grizzly Bear bit Coyote.” Grizzly Bear did not speak. He was afraid. It is true, Coyote was never bitten by Grizzly Bear, and he was helped by his friend Buffalo Bull. Enough.

HOW LOCUST TRICKED COYOTE
    { Zuni }

    Locust was sitting on the branch of a piñon tree. He was playing his flute. It made a high, chirping sound. Now and then, he stopped piping away to shout as loud as he could (not very loud), in a high, quavering voice: “I am Locust, the best flute player in the world!”
    Coyote happened to be in the neighborhood. He heard Locust’s flute; he heard Locust’s boasting. “Who can that be, making this tiny fluttering piping?” thought Coyote. He was curious. He followed the sound. He came to the piñon tree. He saw Locust sitting on the branch with his flute. Locust was singing a little song in his tiny, shrill voice:
    Kokopelli is hump-backed,
Kokopelli’s feet are backward,
Kokopelli has a flute,
Kokopelli is a fine fiute player.
So am I.
    “My friend,” said Coyote, “this is a very pretty song. Will you teach it to me?”
    “Why not?” said Locust, and taught Coyote the song. They practiced. They sang the song together, Locust with his high, quavering voice, Coyote with his deep, hoarse, grating voice.
    “Didn’t we do beautifully?” Coyote asked. “Is not our singing together something wonderful?”
    Secretly, Locust thought: “We do not harmonize very well. Coyote really has a very unpleasant, croaky voice. It makes one shudder. He will never make a good singer.” Aloud he said: “It went passably well. Our voices surely are very different.”

    “Of course,” said Coyote, “yours is high, and mine is low. It harmonizes delightfully.”
    “Hmmm,” said Locust.
    “Friend, I have to go now,” said Coyote. “Thank you for having taught me this pretty song.”
    “Don’t mention it,” said Locust.
    Coyote went on, memorizing the song as he walked. He stumbled over a dead branch lying in his path. He fell hard. He scraped his knees. He was upset. The