Coyote Loses His Eyes

###Coyote Loses His Eyes (Eye Juggler)

A long time ago there were some snowbirds, who had a trick. They sat in a piñion tree, took out their eyes, and threw them over the tree. Then they called their eyes, and the eyes came back into their heads. Coyote came along and watched the birds. He took out his eyes and threw them upwards, but they stuck in a tree limb. The eyes did not fall back again and Coyote had to walk around blind. He felt around and found some piñion pitch and put this into his eyes. That is why Coyote has yellow eyes today.

###Coyote’s Eyes Melt

Coyote used to go hunting. Once, while he was hunting he found two hoofs of a fawn. He strung them on a string, brought them home and gave them to his wife. She tied them around her waist and each time Coyote went near her he would shake the hoofs and call her “my rattle.”

One day, while hunting, Coyote caught a small rabbit. He brought it back and gave it to his wife to cook. She singed off the fur, roasted it and gave it to Coyote, and he ate it all by himself. While he was eating, he turned his head away from the fire. When he finished he turned around and said, “At this time of day I do not sit toward the fire when I eat.”

His wife sat with her face away from Coyote; he had given her nothing to eat and she was angry. From then on he called his wife “rabbit cooker.” He said, “What is the matter, rabbit cooker?” Each time he asked this question his wife would turn her head away. The reason that Coyote turned his head away from the fire was because his eyes were made of piñion gum and he was afraid that the heat would melt them. But, he turned around so many times to talk to his wife that his eyes melted, and he became blind. That is why, today, coyotes have a black streak under their eyes. Coyote’s eyes melted down that far.

When Coyote became blind he called his wife “my rattle,’’ and followed her wherever he heard the sound of the rattle. There was a cliff and Coyote’s wife went toward it. When she reached the edge of the cliff she took off the rattle and walked along, shaking the rattle. At last she threw the rattle over the cliff; Coyote followed after it and was killed. “That is why when old men go blind their wives leave them.”