The animal people celebrated the return of the salmon with a
feast more splendid than any they had ever had before. Though often
they thought Coyote a great nuisance, they had to admit that he
knew how to use his wits. At the feast-after much arguing-they even
gave him the place of honor next to Eagle, their chief.
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Harry
Fonseca's "When Coyote Leaves The Reservation
(a portrait of the artist as a young Coyote)"
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Coyote was full of himself. "Who in the World is more clever
than Coyote?" he thought as he made his way home from the feast
by starlight. "Who else could have snatched the Sun? Or sniffed
out the stolen salmon? With my brains, I should be chief, not Eagle.
I should have the best seat at the feast, and be served first. I,
Ki-yoo the Coyote, should be honored above all others!"
Coyote gave a proud toss of his head, and as he did so, he spied
the stars glittering in the dark sky above. A shooting star streaked
overhead.
"Hai! How beautiful!" Coyote exclaimed. And suddenly
he knew what he wanted most in the world to do.
"I want to ride on a star," said he. "Even Mouse
and Measuring Worm, the least of the animal people, can walk around
on the earth. I, Coyote, should have a better way of going. And
I shall! I shall take a journey on a star."
So Coyote climbed to the top of the nearest hill, lifted his
nose to the sky, and howled up at the Evening Star. "Hai, Bright
Star!" he called. "Come down here to me. I am going to
take a ride on your back."
But the Evening Star did not obey. It barely blinked as it moved
along its sky path.
"Ho! Are you hard of hearing, old Star?" cried Coyote.
"I am Coyote-the Great Coyote, Sun-Snatcher and Fish-Finder.
I have saved my people from darkness and cold and hunger, and now
I wish to see all the World. Come down here so that I may jump onto
your back."
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Coyote
Chasing Rabbit 1941 Painting by Tahoma, Quincy
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The Evening Star smiled, but kept on its way without a word.
In a little while it was gone.
But Coyote was not one to give up so easily.
At sundown the next day Coyote climbed to the same hilltop and
called as he had called before.
"Hai,
Bright Star! Come down here to me so that I may jump onto your
back."
This time the Evening Star, seeing that Coyote was in earnest,
answered in a thin silvery voice. "Be content with your four
feet, Ki-yoo the Coyote," it called. "Your place is on
the earth. You may be a Great One among the animal folk, but you
could not stand the speed of the stars."
But Coyote would not be put off. Each day at nightfall he returned
and howled and yowled. whined and whispered and blustered and begged
until at last Evening Star grew tired of listening.
"Enough, enough!" it said one night in a voice more
sharp than silvery. "Jump on before I change my mind."
Evening
Star slid down the sky, barely slowing as it skimmed past the hilltop,
and then soared upward once more. Coyote gave a great jump, catching
hold with his front paws, and almost slid off. "Hai, yi, yi!"
he cried, but the sound whirled away in the star-wind. Evening Star
flew so fast that poor Coyote could not haul himself up to crouch
upon its back. It took all of his strength just to hold on.
Evening Star flew up and up and up, and then north over lands
of ice and snow. The sharp star-wind grew bitter cold. Coyote's
paws grew cold,' then stiff, then numb, until he could hold on no
longer. Letting go, he fell, head over feet over tail, back to earth.
He was a long time falling. Ten snows passed, some say. And
when he came at last to earth, his landing was so hard that he was-say
some-flattened out as thin as an acorn cake. Certainly, from that
day to this he has been thin. And every day to this day, he climbs
at nightfall to the top of the nearest hill and scolds the Evening
Star.
Back in the Beforetime: Tales of the California Indians [the
Klamath River region in the north to the inland desert mountains
and the southern coastlands] From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.
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