Texts of the North American Indian

Writings of E.S. Curtis
Excerpts from "The North American Indian" Set #254, Vol. 8

THE CHINOOKAN TRIBES (cont'd)

MYTHOLOGY (cont'd)

The salmon were now in the river, and as Coyote traveled up the stream they followed him. All the various places along the river he named. When he came to Skólups (Cape Horn, Washington), he stood thinking for a time on the top of the high bluff. In the middle of the stream he saw a canoe in which was a sturgeon. Soon there appeared a person coming out of the water under the canoe with a sturgeon in each hand. These threw into the boat. this was a surprising thing, catching sturgeon by diving! Coyote decided to go above, and swim down and steal the fish while the person was under the water. So he swam down, picked out a fine sturgeon, and went ashore with it. On the bank was a large oak, behind which coyote now concealed himself, waiting to see what the diver would do. The next time the fisherman came up he paused and looked into the boat. He seemed to be counting his fish. He climbed into the canoe and sat there looking at them. Soon he pointed his finger straight at the oak it stopped. In great fear Coyote dodged, but the finger followed every movement. The fisher then began to paddle to the shore, and Coyote was more frightened than ever. When the boat touched, he saw that the paddler had no mouth, but every other feature was that of a human being. This strange person began to walk toward Coyote, all the time pointing his finger at the latter's eyes. Of course he did not speak, and Coyotes decided that this was his way of accusing him of having stolen the sturgeon. Coyote looked at him intently and decided that something ought to be done to his face. He tried to induce the person to be still, and proposed by signs to cook a meal. He gathered stones, built a fire, and cooked the fish on the hot stones. "We are going to eat now," he said by signs as he gave the man the best portion of the fish. the man came close to Coyote, took the fish, smelled of it, and threw it away. This astonished and displeased Coyote. the person picked up another piece of fish and threw it away. Coyote pondered but a moment, then he seized a piece of flint, felt the strange person's face, and suddenly cut a strait slit where he thought the mouth ought to be. "Hurry and wash your face!" he cried, and the man ran to the river, washed, and returned. "My friend," he said, "you should have cooked a larger fish." "Why, you nearly poked my eyes out for having taken this little one," retorted Coyote. This man belonged to the village which was called Nimishhaia. After the meal he went to the village, and the people saw him coming with a hole in his face and emitting strange sounds from it. They asked by signs what had happened to him, and he replied that someone had put this mouth on him. And he told them what it was for. So they called down coyote to come and make mouths for all of them. He did so, but most of them he made a little to large, which is the reason the people of that village always had larger mouths than others, and talked more loudly. It was decided that since Coyote was such a great person they ought to give him a good wife, but to this proposal he replied that he did not wish to have a wife: he was a wanderer, and had no home.

So Coyote left Nimishhaia, and a little above that place he saw a man turning somersaults, landing on his head, and yelling loudly, as if it hurt him. Coyote was curious, and, going to see what it all meant, he found that the man had his ankles tied, and between his legs was a bundle of firewood. "What is the matter, friend?" he asked. "My wife is about to have a child," the man answered, "and I am carrying wood for the house." "But that is no way to carry wood," said Coyote. He untied the man's legs, cut some hazelbrush, and began to twist it into a rope, which he attached to the bundle as a pack-string. He swung the fagot on his back, passing the loop of the rope across his forehead. "Take the lead, and I will carry this in for you," he said. So the man went ahead, and Coyote followed, bearing the bundle of fuel. "Here is my home," said the man after a while. Coyote threw down the load, and said, "That is the way to carry wood. Where is this woman who is to have a child?" The man showed him a woman lying on a bed with a pile of robes wrapped around her hand. She did not seem to be pregnant, and Coyote unwrapped the hand, in a finger of which he saw a silver embedded in a mass of pus. "Is this what is the matter?" he asked. "yes," was the answer. "That is nothing; let me show you," said Coyote. He took a small sharp flake of bone, pricked the finger open, an pressed out the sliver. "Now I will show you how to make a child," he said. He then did so. Coyote remained a few days in that house, and the woman said she was soon to be a mother. In a short time the child was born. "that is your child," he said to the man. "I give it to you."

Coyote next came to the place where he saw many white salmon in the river, but as no one was fishing he thought it must be a difficult place to fish, so he decided to make a trap. This place is now called Skahlhulmah (Little White Salmon River). He began to twine cords of hazel-brush, and when the trap was finished he hung it over the riffle. Going to the shore, he watched, and said to the trap: "I have made you and hung you here, and I will call you alulh. When you are filled with fish, you must call to me." He went off a little distance and sat down. Soon he heard a call: "N&_acute;-hlumsht, n&_acute;-hlumsht!" " I am now filled, I am now filled!" Coyote ran to the trap, found it full of fish, and called the people from the village. By the time they reached the stream he had the trap on the bank, and he directed them to stand in a line while he distributed the fish among them, two to each. But there were not enough, and he set the trap again and again, five times in all, and by that time the people had learned how to to use it, and how to make one.

Coyote travelled on, and after a while came to another stream, a larger one, where there was a large village. This was a N&_acute;mnit (on White Salmon river). As he sat on the bank looking down the stream, he said, "I want some young person to get me a drink of water from the river." A woman answered: "There is nobody drinking water here. we have a hard time to get water." Coyote looked about and saw plenty of water close at hand, and asked what was the matter. That he might see what the trouble was, a young girl was sent for water. Coyote sat and watched her. She waded into the creek and began to dip, but suddenly she dropped the vessel, screamed, and started back running. Coyote told them to send another girl, and this was done with the same result. then he himself went down to the same spot, waded out, dipped a vessel full, and started to the bank. As he did so, he saw two white salmon chasing each other in fun, with mouths wide open. "this is what they were afraid of," he said. A great crowd of people surrounded him and drank eagerly of the water. Soon it was exhausted, and he fetched more, until all were satisfied. Then he went into the brush and cut sticks for spears. He asked for string, and a woman gave him a string of beads. He repeated his request for string, and another woman handed him two strings of beads, and so it went until a great many beads had been given him. Seeing that they did not understand what he wanted, he went to the woods and got some inner bark of the white fir, pulling it off in long strands. When the first spear was made, he called the people to the river to watch him, and he began to spear salmon. Then he gathered stones, built a fire, cooked the fish, and bade the people eat. "these things are good to eat," he said, "but you are afraid of them. They will not harm you. Go up-stream and shout and frighten the fish down so that those who are here can spear them. This place I will call N&_acute;." When Coyote started to leave, they asked him to remain and take a wife, but he declined and went on.

In the next village he entered a house where sat an old woman. He began to wash his hands. she said: "I do no know what to feed you. You can see I am poor and sick." He noticed that her body was covered with something white, like slime. She took some of this substance and placed it on a plate and gave the dish to him, and as the old woman seemed to be half blind he pretended to eat it, but really threw it over his shoulder. but she was watching him. He could not throw it away fast enough, so he put some in his quiver, opened the bag to throw it out. Inside he found a fish, fat and nicely roasted. He hungrily devoured it, and then finding oil on the quiver, he even ate that. the fish tasted so good that he decided to return to the old woman and get more; so back down the river he went beyond her house, and then came in again, as if he were another traveller from below. He washed his face and hands, sat down, and said: "I am tired. I have come a long way, and am hungry." "I do not know what I can do for you," she replied. "Coyote was here not very long ago, and I fed him of my flesh, but he threw it all away. You can see what my flesh looks like, and I do not think you would wish to eat it. There is nothing I can give you." Coyote sat thinking what to say next, and at last, perceiving that she knew who he was, he cried, "you old, ugly, rotten thing!" and took his departure.

EDWARD S. CURTIS