American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends)

by Richard Erdoes

  “Come closer,” said Rabbit, “blow harder.” Coyote came closer. He blew harder. “I’m nearly dead,” said Rabbit, “come closer. Blow a little harder.”

  Rabbit turned. He kicked hard. The fire flew in Coyote’s face. Rabbit ran away. He was laughing very hard.

  FAT, GREASE, AND BERRIES

  {Crow}

  Coyote was walking along and met four men and every part of their bodies was made of fat, grease, and all kinds of berries, fruits, etc. Before the four men saw him, he transformed his body into that of a poor dog, and he got in front of them, when they came nearer, so they would have pity on him, and they patted his head while he licked them to get the grease of which they were made. They passed and went on their way and Old Man Coyote went over the hill and got in front of them again. This time he had transformed himself into a larger dog than the previous one, and he licked them again and occasionally bit small pieces off them. Again they passed on and he met them again, a still larger dog, and bit larger pieces. The fourth time, he met them and bit still larger pieces, and then they discovered it to be Old Man Coyote; so they began to run. Old Man Coyote took a young sapling and knocked them down in an old lake bed, and they all melted into a soup.

  As Old Man Coyote started to drink up the soup, he called to his partner to come, and when his partner came, he said, “Now you go after my spoon” (which was the tail of the lynx). His partner started for the spoon and shortly returned, claiming that his moccasins were worn out on the bottom. So Old Man Coyote fitted him out in rawhide moccasins, but his partner, after going but a short distance, took a sharp piece of rock and made holes in the soles, returned again, and again complained of his moccasins. Again he was fitted out, this time with stone-sole moccasins. These he smashed on the rocks and again returned and complained. Old Man Coyote said: “You stay here—you know nothing—and when I reach the top of the hill, you dip your hand in the soup and lick it for me.” When Old Man Coyote went over the first hill for his spoon, his partner drank a lot of the soup, and when the last hill was reached by Old Man Coyote, the partner had drunk the last of the soup and then ran away. When Old Man Coyote came back with the spoon, the lake of soup was cleaned.

  Coyote tracked his partner by following the grease spots and found him asleep under a big shade tree with his rectum protruding. Old Man Coyote took a sharp pointed stick and pushed it through his partner’s rectum into the ground. Then he took some sticks and built a prairie fire to the windward of his sleeping partner. Old Man Coyote shouted that the prairie was on fire and the sleeping partner was quickly aroused, and dashed away to avoid being destroyed by the fire. As he ran, his intestines became unraveled and stretched out across the country. Old Man Coyote took the end of the rectum which was pinned to the ground and began to suck out the soup. He kept on sucking until all the soup had been taken, but he insisted that there must be more of it, and continued sucking, which caused Old Man Coyote to vomit all the soup.

  DON’T BE TOO CURIOUS

  {Lakota}

  Shunka Manitou, Coyote, came walking along, scrounging, as usual. He met Mastincala, Rabbit, who was carrying a leather pouch on his back. “Hau, kola,” Coyote said, “toniktuka hwo?How are you?”

  “Middling well,” said Mastincala.

  Coyote wanted to know what was in the pouch. He guessed: “Oh, you have chanshasha [tobacco] in that pouch on your back. I sure would like something to smoke. Give me some. You’ve got more than you need for your size. You are small, I am big.”

  Rabbit did not answer. “Come on, you greedy, no good Hlete, don’t be stingy.” Rabbit walked on.

  “Hey, you long-eared fellow, let me see what you got there on your back!”

  “Nothing you would want,” Rabbit finally answered.

  “Well, let me see that nothing.”

  “No, you would be sorry. You would be angry with me.”

  Coyote was dying with curiosity. “If it’s not tobacco, what, then?” he insisted.

  “I said already that you would not want what is in this pouch,” said Rabbit.

  Then, in a big rage, Coyote tore the pouch from Rabbit’s back and opened it. The pouch was full of fleas, so many nobody could count them. They all went on Coyote. He ran off in a frenzy, scratching himself, howling.

  Rabbit yelled after him: “I told you so!” Ever since that time you can hear Coyotes howling all over the place. They howl because the fleas are biting and make them itch. That’s why they howl.

  PART THREE

  COYOTE’S AMOROUS ADVENTURES

  COYOTE’S AMOROUS ADVENTURES

  {Shasta}

  Once Coyote perceived two girls walking along the road; and he said to himself, “I should like to have these girls. I wonder how I can get them.” A small creek ran parallel to the road.

  “I will go into the creek and turn into a salmon,” said Coyote. He did so, and pretty soon the girls came to the creek. Upon seeing the salmon darting to and fro, one girl exclaimed, “Oh, here is a salmon! Let us catch it!” So the girls sat down on opposite banks of the river, and the salmon swam back and forth, entering their bodies.

  The elder girl said to her sister, “Do you feel anything queer?”

  And her sister answered: “Yes, I feel fine.”

  Thereupon Coyote came out of the creek in his true form, and laughed at the girls, saying, “You thought it was a salmon, but I fooled you.”

  The girls were angry, and cursed him.

  He kept on going downstream, and after a while he saw two girls digging camas on the other side of the river. He began to wonder how to get possession of them. He made his penis grow into a stalk going under the river and coming up on the other side like a plant. While the girls were bending over digging camas, the stalk entered between their legs. One of the girls then found a strange object on the ground and wanted to find out what the object was. So she looked around and saw a little stalk, which she tapped with her camas-digger.

  Thereupon Coyote began to yell from across the creek, because the stalk was part of his own body, and it hurt him when it was struck. He pulled it back.

  The girls, perceiving the deception, become angry and said, “It was that old Coyote who played this trick on us.”

  TWO RASCALS AND THEIR WIVES

  {Pueblo}

  There was a hill. Old Man Coyote lived on one side of it, Old Man Beaver and his wife lived on the other. So they were neighbors. They were friends, but Old Man Coyote loved to play tricks even upon friends. One day he went over to Old Man Beaver’s place. Beaver said: “Come in friend, sit down by the fireplace. Have a smoke.”

  “Thank you, brother,” said Old Man Coyote. “I’ve had an idea—let’s you and I go out hunting rabbits. You go hunting over to the west, I will go toward the east. The rabbits I’ll catch I’ll bring to your wife. The rabbits you catch, you’ll bring to my wife.”

  “All right,” Old Man Beaver agreed, “but why should I bring my rabbits to your wife, and why should you bring your rabbits to my wife?”

  “Brother, I hate to say this, but you’re slow-witted. Don’t you get it? This way we will swap wives. Wife-swapping is fun. You’ll bring lots of rabbits to my wife. She will be so overjoyed that she will love to copulate with you. And your wife will be so glad with the rabbits I shall be bringing her, that, right away, she will want to sleep with me. This will be fun!”

  “I never thought of this,” said Old Man Beaver. “Well, all right, I’ll get my rabbit stick.”

  Old Man Coyote was always in the mood to copulate. He knew that Old Man Beaver was not as eager to do it. He did it only once in a while. Also Old Man Coyote knew that Beaver was not a very good hunter. How could he be, always swimming around in a pond and eating nothing but twigs and saplings? So Old Man Coyote was very sure of himself.

  Old Man Coyote and Old Man Beaver went off to hunt early in the morning. Beaver Woman was full of anticipation. She was singing a little song:

  “Old Man Coyote,

  come soon />
  with many rabbits.

  Old Man Coyote,

  you’re such a great lover,

  Old Man Coyote,

  sleep with me. ”

  Old Man Coyote came back very late. He had not caught a single rabbit. He went to Old Man Beaver’s house. Beaver Woman scolded him: “You braggart, always boasting of what a great hunter you are. You brought me nothing to eat. I won’t sleep with a no-good fellow like you. Get out!”

  Old Man Coyote was not very happy. He went over to his own place. Old Man Beaver was already there. He had brought a whole sack full of rabbits. He and Coyote Woman had eaten their fill until they could not eat a single mouthful more. Old Man Beaver was already copulating with Coyote Woman. She was crying out loud: “Agh, agh, agh!”

  Old Man Coyote was sitting outside, in front of the door, listening. He called out: “Oh, oh, brother Beaver, don’t hurt my wife!”

  Coyote Woman called back: “Old Man Coyote, you fool! I’m crying because I like it!” Old Man Beaver and Coyote Woman did it several times. They couldn’t stop themselves.

  Finally they were done. Old Man Beaver came out of the house. He told Old Man Coyote: “Brother, don’t complain. This was your idea!”

  COYOTE SLEEPS WITH HIS OWN DAUGHTERS

  {Southern Ute}

  Coyote had two daughters and a son, a little boy. One evening Coyote was lying on his blanket. It was raining and the roof of his shelter was leaking. Water dripped on Coyote and he got wet. He told one of his daughters to climb up and fix it. While she was doing this he caught sight of her exposed vulva. Coyote became excited and amorous. He felt his penis stirring. He said to himself: “Oh, this looks nice and juicy. I want to copulate with her soon.” Then he told his other daughter: “Climb up there and fix the leak!” As she did so, Coyote got a glimpse of her vulva. “Oh, how lovely and red,” he said to himself. “I must copulate with her too.” The thought made his penis stand up. He thought: “How can I do this with these girls, my daughters? It is forbidden to a man to sleep with his own kin.” After a while he told himself: “Never mind, I’ll find a way.”

  Coyote told his wife: “I am going hunting for rabbit.” He went out of his lodge. He thought: “My wife is getting old and ugly. It is no longer fun to copulate with her. It will be much more fun with my daughters.” He picked up a sharp, broken bone. He scratched his chest with it until it bled. He went home. He told his wife: “Woman, an enemy stabbed me. I am dying.” He fell down on the floor of the lodge.

  His wife and daughters rushed to his side: “Oh, poor man, don’t leave us! Don’t die!”

  Coyote told them: “It cannot be helped, I’m done for. Dear wife, dear daughters, after I am dead, wrap me in my blanket and put me on a woodpile. Burn me up. Then go to the next village and make a new life for yourselves. When you go, let none look back or something bad will happen.”

  Coyote played dead. He made it look real. The women wrapped him in his blanket, put him on a woodpile, and set fire to it. “Let no one look back,” said his wife. Then they went away weeping.

  The little boy looked back. He cried: “Father slipped out of his blanket. It’s only the blanket that’s burning.”

  “How can you say such a wicked thing?” his mother scolded him. “Your poor father is dead.”

  “I saw him roll off the woodpile,” said the boy.

  “It was his ghost you saw,” said his mother. “Your father is dead. He is burned up.”

  They all went to another village and put up a lodge there.

  Not long after, a good-looking young man arrived at that village. The stranger was dressed in rich otter fur. He wore a hat made of otter skin. He had an otter-skin quiver slung over his shoulder. He was riding a fine gray horse. It was Coyote, who had the power to change himself into anyone or anything he wished. His wife, daughters, and little boy were sitting before their lodge. Coyote dismounted in front of them. Coyote said to his wife, who did not recognize him: “You look like a good cook. I have a lot of good-tasting buffalo-hump meat in my possible bag. Let’s cook it and have a feast!”

  They all went into the lodge, cooked and ate the meat. Coyote’s daughters looked at the handsome stranger and thought that they would like to have him for a husband. Their mother thought that he would make a good son-in-law. Coyote told his wife: “You have two beautiful daughters. I wish to marry them.”

  His wife told him: “I would be proud to have you as a son-in-law.”

  Both daughters said: “I want him for my husband.”

  The little boy said: “This man looks a lot like our father.”

  “How can you say such a foolish thing?” his mother scolded him. “Your poor father is dead. Also your father was old and ugly. This one is young and handsome.”

  “He has the same look in his eyes as Father,” the little boy persisted.

  “Be quiet,” said his mother.

  Coyote married his daughters. “Take whomever you want first,” said Coyote’s wife. “I am going to bed.”

  “I’ll start with your eldest daughter, dear mother-in-law,” said Coyote.

  That night Coyote copulated with his eldest daughter. “Oh, oh, it hurts!” she cried.

  “Only the first time,” said her mother. “From then on it feels good.”

  The next night Coyote slept with his younger daughter. “Oh, oh,” she cried, “it hurts!”

  Her mother told her: “It was the same with me. It hurts the first time. Later you can’t get enough of it.”

  Coyote said to himself: “This is so much better than with the old woman.”

  Some time later his wife said: “Son-in-law, I feel like eating rabbit. Could you get some for me?” Coyote left to hunt rabbits. He took his little boy with him. Coyote had the power to make himself big or small to fit any situation. He made himself small and crept into a rabbit hole and killed all the rabbits inside. He ate the biggest and threw the others out of the hole to take home.

  “That is exactly how Father used to do it,” thought the boy. He told this to his mother.

  “Your father is dead,” said his mother. “And no man ever marries his daughters. It is forbidden. One cannot even imagine it.”

  A few days later Coyote again went out with his boy to hunt. They did not catch anything. “Let’s sit down and rest awhile,” said Coyote. He began telling his son funny Trickster tales. He laughed at his own stories, grinning from ear to ear. Then the little boy saw that Coyote had four teeth missing, one at the upper left and one at the upper right, one at the lower left and one at the lower right. This was something Coyote had not been able to change. The son ran back to his mother, crying: “It is Father! It is Father! You can tell by his teeth! He has done what one cannot even imagine!”

  The mother asked her daughters: “What does your husband do when you make love?”

  “He sucks our breasts,” the daughters told her.

  “That’s what he does with me!” cried their mother. “It is your father! The boy was right!”

  Just then Coyote came home. His wife went after him with her skinning knife, screaming: “You unspeakable man, you have done the unimaginable!”

  Coyote was running away from her, crying: “Calm down, old woman, from now on I sleep only with you!”

  His daughters were so ashamed they flew up onto the sky and became stars.

  OLD MAN COYOTE MEETS COYOTE WOMAN

  {Blackfoot}

  In the beginning there were only two human beings in this world—Old Man Coyote and Coyote Woman. Old Man Coyote lived on one side of the world, Coyote Woman on the other. By chance they met.

  “How strange,” said Old Man Coyote. “We are exactly alike.”

  “I don’t know about that,” said Coyote Woman. “You’re holding a bag. What’s in it?”

  Old Man Coyote reached into his bag and brought out a penis. “This odd thing.”

  “It is indeed an odd thing,” said Coyote Woman. “It looks funny. What is it for?”

  “I don�
��t know,” said Old Man Coyote. “I don’t know what to use it for. What do you have in your bag?”

  Coyote Woman dug deep into her bag and came up with a vagina. “You see,” she said, “we are not alike. We carry different things in our bags. Where should we put them?”

  “I think we should put them into our navels,” said Old Man Coyote. “The navel seems to be a good place for them.”

  “No, I think not,” said Coyote Woman. “I think we should stick them between our legs. Then they will be out of the way.”

  “Well, all right,” said Old Man Coyote. “Let’s put them there.” They placed these things between their legs.

  “You know,” said Coyote Woman, “it seems to me that the strange thing you have there would fit this odd thing of mine.”

  “Well, you might be right,” said Old Man Coyote. “Let’s find out.” Coyote stuck his penis into Coyote Woman’s vagina.

  “Um, that feels good,” said Coyote Woman.

  “You are right,” said Old Man Coyote. “It feels very good, indeed. I have never felt this way before.”

  “Neither have I,” said Coyote Woman. “It occurred to me that this might be the way to make other human beings. It would be nice to have company.”

  “It certainly would,” said Old Man Coyote. “Just you and me could become boring.”

  “Well, in case doing what we just did should result in bringing forth more human beings, what should they be like?” said Coyote Woman.

  “Well, I think they should have eyes and mouth going up and down.”

  “No, no,” said Coyote Woman. “Then they would not be able to see well, and food would dribble out of the lower corner of their mouths. Let’s have their eyes and mouths go crosswise.”