Coyote as Eye Juggler

Coyote went on. He saw that someone was walking around in an open place. When he got nearer he saw that it was Jack-rabbit. Jack-rabbit was throwing up his eyes, one after the other, juggling them. He was out where there were no trees and had his eyes out of their sockets.

Coyote wanted to know how this was done. He came to the rabbit. He had the rabbit teach him how. He learned how all right. He started to play that way. But Jack-rabbit told him, “You are foolish, so I will tell you that you must be careful not to do this under trees or you will lose your eyes. You must do it only where there are no trees.”

Coyote went around having a good time, and before he knew it he was under a tree. Almost at once his eyes were caught in the tree. His eye sockets were red and ugly and his eyes were gone. He stood there. He didn’t know what to do.

So he began to shout. He said, “I have found a fat buffalo lying dead here under this tree.”

Someone heard him call. It was Jack-rabbit who heard him and came back to help him.

Jack-rabbit got two yellow berries and put them in Coyote’s eye sockets. “Use these in place of your eyes,” he told him.

Coyote as Eye-Juggler (version 2)

Coyote was trotting along. He saw that someone was walking around in an open place, throwing something up. He saw the person looking up and then down. He went over and found that it was Rabbit.

“What are you doing ?” he asked.

Rabbit had his eyes out. He was tossing them up, one after the other, and keeping them going in he air. Then he would let them fall back in the sockets again.

Coyote thought that was great fun. “I want to learn that,” he said. Rabbit said, “No, you don’t take care of what you are given.”

Coyote offered him much tobacco.

“No,” said Rabbit, “if you are not careful you’ll go in the woods doing this and the eyes will catch in the trees. And you’ll probably go under a grape vine and get them caught too.”

“No, there are no grape vines here.” He begged and begged. So Rabbit showed him at last.

Coyote was greatly pleased. He went around doing as he had been taught. At first he only did it in the open. But then he went in the woods and before he knew it his eyes were caught in a grape vine which was growing from a tree.

Coyote went around without eyes. He was lost. He called and called for help. Rabbit had not gone far away. He wanted to see what Coyote would do. He heard Coyote shouting, “Where are you? I’m lost. I’ve got sore eyes and can’t see. Why don’t you come and help me?”

Rabbit waited. He knew what had happened now. He was going to wait a minute and teach Coyote a lesson before helping him. Finally Rabbit came along. He came to Coyote’s aid. He brought Coyote’s eyes down and put them back. He said, “It’s better to take this power back, for you don’t know how to handle it.” So he took it back and told Coyote to let it alone. But Rabbit kept the gifts Coyote had given him.

That’s the way it is today. Some young fellows want to have power.

They go to an old man and give him gifts and get instructions in it. Then they use it in the wrong way. They don’t obey the rules. The old man gets worried. He says, “That fellow isn’t using my power in the right way. I got that for a good purpose, to keep away ghosts or a bad disease, and now he is not obeying the rules. I had that power to watch over my children and he is spoiling it.” He doesn’t like it. And he may ask the young man to return the power . Usually the young fellow gets in trouble with it, and then he gives it back himself. ** *Opler’s note Power, acquired through a personal supernatural experience, may, with the permission of the giver be taught to another. The songs, prayers, and rules are taught to a younger man, for instance, and then the novitiate may use them to establish a rapport with the power which is just as helpful and potent as that his instructor enjoys. If the younger man angers the power by disobedience or error, however, the ire of the power may be visited upon the one who first wielded it. Since the efficacy of a ceremony depends on perfect understanding between shaman and power (so that power will extend itself to the utmost at the shaman’s call). A shaman ordinarily will run no risk of outside interference, and will not teach his ceremony to another until he is advanced in age and feels that his death is near.