Coyote Steals Fire

Coyote lived with the people of whom he was chief. They had no fire. They gathered large flat rocks and piled them together. Toward evening the rocks used to begin to be hot. In the morning Coyote threw water on them; then they steamed, and that made them still hotter. The other people did the same with their heaps. They all used these rocks instead of fire.

Now Coyote was lying on his bed in his tent looking before him. Something fell down in front of him. It was a small piece of burnt rush which had gone up with the smoke and had been carried by the wind. Coyote picked it up and put it away. Without delay he went outside and called to his head men to come. They gathered in his tent. He told them about what had fallen down; he said, “This is what I mean. This is what I want you to look at. Here it is. Look at it. What do you think? Do you know what it is? Where does it come from? I wish that you all speak.” They did not speak. They thought about it and were silent. Coyote said, “I do not want that you do that. I want you to talk. In order that we may find this out, I wish you all not to be silent.” Then one of the head chiefs said to him, “We do not know what this is.” They all assented. “ Yes,” said Coyote.

Then he pointed to one of his men, the Owl. “I select you; bring very many Owls.” He sent another to call the Eagle people; one to bring the Crows; one to the Grouse and the Sage-Hens and the Hummingbird tribe. He also sent to the Hawk-Moths, and to all the kinds of birds. They were to send runners to other tribes, and all were to come to him quickly. Then he said to one man, “My friend, go to the river and get reeds. Bring them here.” His friend went to get the reeds. The others went home. Because Coyote had told him to be quick, the one man soon came back bringing reeds. Then Coyote took a stick and crushed the reeds into shreds. He finished this about sunset.

When it was dark he called to his friends to come to him again. Then they came. They did not know his plan, and they asked each other, “Why does he do that ?” He had a heap of the shredded bark of the reeds. His friends watched him. In the night he told them to go home. It was late. When he was alone he took dark blue paint; he rubbed the paint and the bark together, and the bark became blue. When he rubbed a long time the bark finally became black. It was black like human hair. Coyote could hardly sleep. Now it was morning again. After sunrise he called to his friends to come. He put the shredded bark on his head, and it was like long hair reaching down to the ground. When they came he did not look to them like Coyote, but like another person. Then he asked them, “Who knows why I am doing this? What do you think?”

No one of his friends answered. They all sat still. They did not know what his purpose was. “We do not know what this is,” they said. They thought that he asked them merely to trick them, because he himself must know his purpose. Then he sent them home again. When they had gone out he took off his bark hair, wrapped it up, and put it away. Then he thought that the tribes that he had sent for must be coming near. He sent his friends on the hills to look out for them. He told them to go quickly. Then they went as quickly as possible. Coyote hardly slept. He constantly thought about what he had found.

Now some of his people met the various tribes coming. The different people continued to arrive at short intervals from different directions. They were all able men, not the entire people. They came towards his tent. He ordered the arriving tribes to go to the tents of his own people and not to camp separately. “Eat quickly and come to council with me,” he told them. They did so. Then all the head men came. They sat in circles in several rows to listen to Coyote. It was night. Continually he asked the new people what the thing was. He asked them from what direction it came, or whether it came from above. It was laid on something and handed from one man to another. Nobody knew what it was. When no one knew it, Coyote said, “I intend to hunt up this thing. I shall find out from where it comes, from what tribe it is, or whether it is from the sky. I want you to search, looking where each of you thinks best . That is why I called you. We will start in the morning.” They all said, “Very well, we follow your advice. We will go behind you ; we wish that you lead us. That is why we came here.”

Now they were ready to start. “Which way would you go?” they asked each other. “I do not know,” they said to each other. Then Coyote spoke, “There is mostly a considerable wind from the West; it does not come from any other direction. I think that is where this thing came from. That is what I think. Let us go there.” Coyote took his bark hair by a carrying-thong. Then they started. Then they camped for the night.

That night Coyote had nothing to say. Before it was daylight they went on again. They camped overnight. Coyote said nothing. They went on again.

The third night they camped at the foot of a mountain. Next day they climbed the mountain . They stopped at the crest of the range. Coyote asked his people which was the way to go ; but none knew. Then Coyote himself spoke. He saw a mountain. It was far off, so that he could hardly see it. It appeared like smoke. He saw only its summit. “We will go straight to that mountain there,” he said. So they went down from their mountain and camped at its foot. Coyote spoke to them there. “I think the place is much farther. I think it is near the mountain that we saw from the summit. My friends, I shall ask for scouts to go ahead.” Then they travelled on, and next camped in the level plain.

Again they travelled a whole day. They approached mountains, and made a camp. Coyote said, “We will stay here. Tomorrow I wish some of you to go away to look, searching all over the world.”

The next day he sent a large Red-tailed Hawk up to search. The Hawk came down again in another place. They went towards him. Before they quite reached him, Coyote, who was anxious, said to him, “ What did you see, my friend?”

The Hawk said, “I saw nothing. I became tired. I could not fly higher. I could not see the edge of the earth. I was not high enough.”

“Yes,” said Coyote. He thought who was the best man to send up. “You go,” he said to the Eagle.

“I do not think I will reach there,” said the Eagle. Now he started, going up and around, up and around. They could not see him. He was away longer than the Hawk; then he came back. At once Coyote, without waiting, asked him where he had been. The Eagle said, “I could not go farther. It was hard to go farther. I was tired. I saw nothing. Only I saw that the earth looked a little smoky.” Then the others thought that the Hummingbird was the best to go, and that Coyote ought to ask him. “He could do better than the Eagle.” So Coyote went to the Hummingbird. “Try what you can do, my friend. I think you can do something.” The Hummingbird gave no answer; he continued to sit. Then he began to make a noise and flew off. They looked after him, but lost him. They could see him no more. He was away a longer time than the other two birds. Coyote asked the rest, “Can you see the Hummingbird returning ? “ They said to him, “No.” Again he asked them, “Has he not come back yet? Search about! See what has become of him; perhaps he has gone to sleep.”

It began to be afternoon when they went away searching. Coyote thought that they were a long time. When they were tired from looking for him, the Hummingbird at last came back. They could hardly see him coming down. They went to him, and all gathered around him. Coyote said, “Well, my friend, how far were you ?” For a while the Hummingbird sat still; he said nothing. Then he said, “Very well, I will begin to speak now. At the edge of the earth and the sky, where they are together, I saw something standing. It was very far away. Something was there; I do not think we can reach it. It was a dark thing standing up, and the top was bent over. That was all I saw.”

Coyote said, “ That is what I thought one of you would see. That is what we are going for. It is from this that the thing came which I found.” Coyote liked very much what the Hummingbird had seen. He said, “ My friend, what you say makes my heart feel good.” He was happy and went about among all his people. He could hardly sit still. He did not stay in that place the rest of the afternoon. “We will start and go a distance, then camp again for the night,” he said. Next morning they started again. They went over the mountain and camped at the foot of it on the other side. Again they travelled on and camped in the plain.

The next day they crossed another ridge and camped at its farther side. Then Coyote sent some of his people up again to see how near they had come. He sent the Eagle, thinking he might see it now. Soon the Eagle came down again. “My friend, what did you see ?” asked Coyote. The Eagle said, “I saw nothing. It is very dangerous to go up. It is very difficult.” Coyote said to the Hummingbird, “Go again, my friend, and see how far from it we are now.” The Hummingbird flew up again. Soon he came back. All gathered around him. The Hummingbird said, “ I saw three mountain ranges this side of it. We are approaching it.”

Coyote wished to go on. He started again with his people. They camped at the foot of a mountain . Crossing it, they camped at its farther side. From there they went faster, Coyote leading. They went over another range. Then Coyote said, “We will go on again to the foot of that mountain. That mountain is the last one. We will stop here and wash and become clean and dress. I think there are people where that is which we saw; therefore wash and decorate yourselves.” Then they did so. Coyote, too, adorned himself. He took the bark and put it into his hair. He spread it all around like hair. He parted it in the middle and wrapped up two long strands of it that reached to his feet; he wrapped them with bark. Before he had finished this he sent the Eagle up again. They were on this side of the third range. Then the Eagle came down again. He said, “We are not very far away now. I saw that which the Hummingbird saw. We are near.”

“Yes,” they all said. Then they went to the top of the range. There they counted their people, and divided them into twenties. Each twenty were to go to one tent. Coyote said that he would go to the tent of the head chief, with twenty of his own head men.

They descended the mountain. They came near a village which was on the top of a flat hill. Then Coyote spoke to his friends, “We have burned nothing heretofore. Our fire was not fire. We have come to fire now. We will stay here two days. It is the fire for which we have come. We will take it away from them. They will have none left here. Where the origin of the fire is, there they will have no more fire. We will take it to the place where we live, and we will possess it in our own land. I will use this hair of mine to take it away from them. I will deceive these people that have the fire. I will tell them that we wish them to make a large fire. I think that is the best way to do it. What do you think ? “

“Yes, that is the right way,” they said. Coyote said, “Before we take the fire away from them I shall whoop twice; keep apart by yourselves, ready to go. Do not tell them why we come here. Keep it to yourselves. All of you take my advice: follow it. Do not forget it. We have not the right kind of fire to use, but after we take this we shall possess fire in our land. We will run away. No one of us will stay. I do not think that they will let us escape easily, but they will pursue us and attack us and try to kill us.”

“Very well,” they said. Then, Coyote going at the head, they went to the first tent, and he asked where the chief lived. “That is where our chief lives,” they said to him, pointing. “Very well, that is where I will live.” Coyote went there. He shook hands with the chief. “My friend, I became nearly exhausted from travelling,” said Coyote. The chief said to him, “Very well. You have reached my house. It is good.” All of Coyote’s men arrived. “ Here are my people. You can go to their tents. You can divide and stay with them,” said the chief that owned the fire.

Coyote was there overnight. Then he called to his friends, the head men, to gather at the lodge of the chief. Coyote spoke first [to the other chief] : “Well, my friend, I travelled. I came here without intending anything. I came only to see you. I desire that you all make a dance for me on the second night. I came very far, and I wish to see a dance; that is what all my people like.” The other chief said, “ It is good; I am glad that you came for a dance. I like it. I will make a big dance for you near where I live.” Before sunset this council was over.

After it was dark the chief called out to his people concerning the dance, “Make a dance for these people. They like to see our way of dancing.” They all assented. Coyote said that they were to put out all the large fires when they danced. The fires in the tents were also to have water poured on them. They should have only one large fire. Now they began to assemble. There were very many. They were all [gathered] in one place. All the women and children were there. None were left in the tents. Coyote said, “Let us keep up this fire all the night.” Then he unwrapt the bark and spread it. When he put it on, the people thought he was adorning himself for the dance. He danced all night without resting. He danced continually. At the beginning of daylight he whooped as a signal. Then he said, “I do not mean anything. I only whooped to show that I like this very well; to show that I like this dance. I never had this kind of dance in my land. It makes my heart good to see all these women and fine girls and your way of dancing. I mean nothing wrong.” “Very well,” they said. Then it began to be a little lighter. Coyote got close to the fire and whooped again. He was very close to the fire, dancing about it. Now his people separated from the others; they got ready to start. Coyote took off his bark hair, and seized it in his hands. With it he hit the fire and put it out. The fine shredded bark took all the fire. Coyote was not slow: it was just as he started to run that he hit the fire. He ran as fast he could.

All Coyote’s people ran. They made a noise like many horses. There was nothing left for the other people; all the fire was out. They said, “That is what he intended to do [when he came]; now let us kill all his people.” Then they pursued him. Coyote was already over the ridge. They could not catch him at once. Then Coyote said to the Eagle, “You can run fast; take this, my friend.”

“Yes,” said the Eagle. So the Eagle carried the fire for a distance. Then the Eagle said to the Hummingbird, “My friend, I am nearly exhausted. You take this.”

“Very well,” said the Hummingbird, and took the fire. Coyote was far at the rear of his tribe talking to them. “If any of you are tired, and are exhausted, hide somewhere; in this way you will save your lives. When we get over this adventure we shall be safe. In this way we shall be saved by hiding.” He thought that the pursuers would kill any one whom they ran down.

They continued to exchange the fire as they became exhausted; different birds took it. The Hummingbird said to the Hawk-Moth, “I am nearly exhausted. Take it, my friend. I think you are good yet.” “Very well,” said the Hawk-Moth, and took it. Then the Hawks and the various slow birds became exhausted and hid, but the others continued to go on, and at last only the best and fastest birds were left. Coyote saw the other people coming near. He thought who of his people might be the best yet. Then he selected the Chicken-Hawk as the swiftest, and gave him the fire to carry. Coyote asked his friends if they were tired. Then he took the fire himself and ran with it, telling all his people to run after him as hard as they could. Then Coyote held it out, saying, “ Some one take it quickly!”

And the Hummingbird took it [again] and flew ahead. “ Stop! The fire is nearly out,” said Coyote. Then the Hummingbird was angry and gave the fire back to Coyote, though he was already far in the lead. Hummingbird went aside and hid, because he was angry with Coyote. Only four were left now, - Coyote, the Eagle, the Chicken-Hawk, and the Hawk-Moth. The rest had scattered as they became exhausted.

The pursuers were near Coyote. They were intending to kill him. The Eagle and the two others became exhausted and hid, and Coyote alone was left, running, carrying the fire. There was a little hill. Coyote ran over the top and went into a hole and closed it up with a stone, so that it looked like the ground. He was inside, holding the fire. Only a little spark of it remained. Then he came out again, and, changing his direction somewhat, ran through a ravine that he saw. After a while the other people saw him again. Then they commenced to pursue him once more. At last they said to each other, “Let him go. We will cause rain and then snow. We will make a hard storm and freeze him to death and put the fire out.” Coyote continued to go, and it began to rain much, just as if water were being poured on him. It rained still more, and soon the ground was as if covered by water. All the hollows were filled, and the valleys were nearly knee-deep with water. Coyote thought that the fire would soon be gone. He thought, “I am carrying this fire now, and perhaps it will go out soon. I wish I could find some one, some animal living in this land.” He saw a small hill with a few cedars on it. He thought he might stand on the hill and be safe under the cedars, as the valleys would all be filled with water. So he went towards the hill.

Before he reached it, he saw a Black-tailed Rabbit sitting right in the water. Coyote said to him: “Quick, my friend ! I have been getting fire from far away. I have it now. It is this fire that has brought me into difficulty, that has caused this rain. This fire will kill me. I am tired. You should know something. You should do something. You should know how to save this fire. Perhaps you do know some way. My friend, you must do it. I think you know something.” He gave him the fire, holding his hand over it. [There was only a finger’s length left. The Rabbit took it and placed it right under himself. “Do not do that. You are in the water. It will go out. You will put the fire out,” said Coyote. So the Rabbit handed it back to Coyote. When he handed it back to him, more was burning than before. Then Coyote said, “Well, my friend, take it, keep it.”

“No,” said the Rabbit [who was offended]. But he told Coyote, “There is a cave in the rock over there; go into it. It will be good.”

“Yes,” said Coyote. When he reached the cave, he found some dry sagebrush and dry cedar lying there. Standing by the brush, he thought, “I will make a fire out of this.” So he heaped it, and placed the fire under it, and blew. Then it began to burn. Then he spoke to the dry cedar, “I shall use you. I shall make a large fire out of you. You will be burned.” So he piled the cedar on the sagebrush. He had been shivering, but soon the fire made him feel good. When the rain was over, the snowstorm and West wind were to come, the people had intended, and they should freeze him dead. Now they began. It became very cold. Coyote was in the cave. There was deep water on the ground. This began to become ice. Coyote felt good from the fire. He did not think that he would freeze to death. He began to sleep. During the night he dreamed that it was clear; that everything was gone from the sky, and that there were no clouds. In the morning he awoke. He looked up and saw that the sky was clear; everywhere was ice. Then the South wind came, and the ice all melted. Then Coyote looked for the Rabbit. He was sitting where he had sat last. Then Coyote shot him and killed him. Then he went back to the cave. He took a piece of old dry sage­ brush; he bored a hole through it. Then he filled it with coals of fire, and closed it up. He thought that he could carry the fire safely thus. A Rock Squirrel with big ears was there. Coyote said to him, “ I have killed your friend [the Rabbit], but you will eat him.” Then the Squirrel went away.

Then Coyote put the fire under his belt and went away with it. He went away without looking around, and without watching, just as if he were at home. Then he got back home. He laid down his tube of sagebrush containing the fire. He called together the few men who were left home with the women and children. After they came, he took the fire. It looked only like a stick. He took an arrow point and bored a small hole into the stick. Then he whittled hard greasewood. “ Now look, you people,” he said. He told two men to hold the sagebrush firmly to the ground. Then he bored it with the greasewood, and picked up the borings, and put them into dry grass. Blowing upon this, he soon had a fire. “This dry pine-nut will be burned hereafter. Dry cedar will also be burned. Take fire into all the tents. I shall throw away the rocks. There will be fire in every house.” Thus said Coyote.

Now all the birds that had become tired and had hidden arrived. Then they all flew back to the places from which they had come ; and from that time on they were birds.