Native American Legends
Coyote in the Buffalo Country
An American Indian Legend - Nation Unknown
Just before Coyote reached the Buffalo country, he came to an old
buffalo-Bull lying down. He had been gored and torn by another buffalo-Bull,
and was badly crippled. Coyote walked around Buffalo and looked
him over. Then Coyote took off his breech-cloth and urinated in
Buffalo's face. So Buffalo said to Coyote, "Coyote, you have
treated me shamefully, although you see that I am badly hurt. I
had ten wives, but another bull took them from me and crippled me
thus."
Now, this Buffalo that talked to Coyote was very old, and his horns
were dull and short. Coyote asked Buffalo where the other one was
that had taken the ten wives, and Buffalo replied that he ranged
close by. Then Coyote said, "I will make you a set of new horns;
I will bathe you and cure you; and when you get well, you can recover
your wives. But if I cure you, and you recover the wives, I want
one of them to take home with me."
Buffalo agreed to give him one. So Coyote went to a small creek
and dug a bathing-hole in the ground, and filled it with water.
Then he heated a pile of stones and put them into the water. Buffalo
bathed in this hot water for five days, and at the end of these
five days he was entirely well. Then Buffalo lay down, and Coyote
went to work on his horns. With his flint knife he scraped and pointed
the horns; and when they were sharp, he put rattlesnake-poison on
them. Then they went on to meet the others.
Now, when Coyote and Buffalo came in sight of the others, the young
bull that had defeated the old one recognized the enemy whose wives
he had stolen, but he did not see Coyote. He met old Buffalo, and
tried to force him back; but after they had fought for a time, and
had begun to grow tired, the older one caught the other in the flank,
and tore a great hole that let the entrails out. The young bull
died, and the old one gathered up his old wives as well as those
of his victim.
Coyote devoured as much of the dead Buffalo's flesh as he could
hold; then he said, "Well, I have had enough now; give me one
of the Buffalo-Cows for a wife, and I will go home." So Coyote
picked out one to take with him; and Buffalo told Coyote, "This
Buffalo-Cow must go with you for ten full days before you dare to
touch her." Coyote agreed to wait ten days, and they started.
Coyote took the lead, and the cow followed him. When night came,
they would sleep at a distance from each other. The sixth day Buffalo-Cow
could talk to Coyote a little, and on the eighth day the Buffalo-Cow
turned into a Coyote woman. After this had happened, Coyote could
hardly keep his vow. The tenth day she slept on the opposite side
of the fire, and Coyote could not sleep. When it was nearly daylight,
Coyote crept over to where she was and touched her. As soon as he
did this, she jumped up as a buffalo-cow again, and rushed out.
Coyote sat by the fire and howled, while Buffalo-Cow went back to
the herd.
Then Coyote decided he would go back and get her. He thought he
would know better next time. When he arrived at the Buffalo camp,
Coyote told Buffalo-Bull that he had had a nightmare that last night,
and had frightened away his new wife. Then Buffalo Bull told Coyote,
"She will not go a second time; now you will have to go home
alone."
Coyote said, "This country will always be this way. When a
man starts back from here with a new wife, he will always lose her
before he gets home."
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