Native American Legends
The fable of the Animals
A Karok (Karuk) Legend
A great many hundred snows ago, Kareya, sitting on the Sacred Stool,
created the world. First, he made the fishes in the Big Water, then
the animals on the green land, and last of all, Man! But at first
the animals were all alike in power.
No one knew which animals should be food for others, and which
should be food for man. Then Kareya ordered them all to meet in
one place, that Man might give each his rank and his power. So the
animals all met together one evening, when the sun was set, to wait
overnight for the coming of Man on the next morning. Kareya also
commanded Man to make bows and arrows, as many as there were animals,
and to give the longest one to the animal which was to have the
most power, and the shortest to the one which should have least
power.
So he did, and after nine sleeps his work was ended, and the bows
and arrows which he had made were very many.
Now the animals, being all together, went to sleep, so they might
be ready to meet Man on the next morning. But Coyote was exceedingly
cunning - he was cunning above all the beasts. Coyote wanted the
longest bow and the greatest power, so he could have all the other
animals for his meat. He decided to stay awake all night, so that
he would be first to meet Man in the morning. So he laughed to himself
and stretched his nose out on his paw and pretended to sleep. About
midnight he began to be sleepy.
He had to walk around the camp and scratch his eyes to keep them
open. He grew more sleepy, so that he had to skip and jump about
to keep awake. But he made so much noise, he awakened some of the
other animals. When the morning star came up, he was too sleepy
to keep his eyes open any longer. So he took two little sticks,
and sharpened them at the ends, and propped open his eyelids. Then
he felt safe. He watched the morning star, with his nose stretched
along his paws, and fell asleep. The sharp sticks pinned his eyelids
fast together.
The morning star rose rapidly into the sky. The birds began to
sing. The animals woke up and stretched themselves, but still Coyote
lay fast asleep. When the sun rose, the animals went to meet Man.
He gave the longest bow to Cougar, so he had greatest power; the
second longest he gave to Bear; others he gave to the other animals,
giving all but the last to Frog.
But the shortest one was left. Man cried out, "What animal
have I missed?" Then the animals began to look about and found
Coyote fast asleep, with his eyelids pinned together. All the animals
began to laugh, and they jumped upon Coyote and danced upon him.
Then they led him to Man, still blinded, and Man pulled out the
sharp sticks and gave him the shortest bow of all. It would hardly
shoot an arrow farther than a foot. All the animals laughed.
But Man took pity on Coyote, because he was now weaker even than
Frog. So at his request, Kareya gave him cunning, ten times more
than before, so that he was cunning above all the animals of the
wood. Therefore Coyote was friendly to Man and his children, and
did many things for them.
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