Coyote Steals Fire from the Fireflies

Coyote walked around. He saw the fire down below at the foot of the rocks. He was right down in the hollow with those people. There was a high stone wall that extended all around. These rock walls were very smooth. He saw no way to get out. He went among the children and asked them where the road out was. They refused to tell him. These people had warned the children not to tell Coyote about the road.

Finally Coyote came to two little bop and asked them, but they said, “No, we were told not to show the road to Coyote.” Coyote unbound the string of shells from his wrist. “My younger brother,” he said, “that certainly looks fine on you ,” and he put it on the little boy’s wrist.

Coyote played with those boys. They were just about old enough to know what they saw. He rolled around on the ground playing with them. Then he said to one of the boys, “My brother, can you show me the road out? If you do I’ll give you these shells.”

The boys agreed to tell him at last. The older one said, “Do you see that juniper tree ? Go to it and tell it to bend down and place you above and it will do so. In the same way people tell it to put them down below from the top.”

Coyote had got them interested in the beads by putting them on the children every once in a while and telling them how well they looked with them on. Now Coyote knew the road.

That evening he tried it out. He ran to the juniper and told it to reach down and pick him up. Then he had it put him back. He tried it several times until he was satisfied that it would do the work.

Those people down there danced every night. They had good times every day. So Coyote prepared to attend one of their dances. He fixed up the material that he was going to use. He went that night to some juniper tree. He took bark from this and tied some tightly together to make a long brush. He looked at it and thought that it was good. He tied it to his tail securely so it would not slip. After he had fixed it up he went where the big dance was going on and danced among the crowd. Coyote danced toward the fire. He stuck his tail in the fire and then looked at it. He shook it.

They said to him, “Coyote, your tail is burning!”

“I know a fire ceremony,” he answered. “Sing my own song.”

“We don’t know your song,” they said.

Then one of them sang, “Codi’s tail burned up!” They all sang this over and over.

Coyote let the juniper bark catch on well so that it wouldn’t go out. He kept watching it. When he thought it was burning well enough, Coyote ran out suddenly before they realized that he was going. He ran in a direction opposite the road. He didn’t let them know that he knew the road.

They all called out, “Don’t let him get away with the fire! He doesn’t know the road. Run him around until he is all worn out!”

Coyote ran back and forth. You could see the streaks of fire where he ran. He ran around just as though he didn’t know the road; it looked as if he was just running aimlessly around. Finally he came near the road. Then he ran as fast as he could to the tree.

“Reach down!” he told it, and it did. “Now the other way,” he commanded, and it threw him up on top. You could see the fire going up on top then.

Right at the top he saw a stalk of sotol. This he struck with his tail.

“This will be good for burning,” he said. He then ran to the other trees and struck one after the other with his tail saying each time, “This will be good for the fire.” He did this until he was all tired out.

Then Buzzard came along. Coyote said to him, “Take this,” and gave him the juniper torch.

Buzzard went high in the mountains and put fire there. It was all over the high places by then and hard to put out. But he, too, got very tired. Then Poorwill took it from Buzzard. Poorwill started out and lit this place and that. You could see the fires starting up at many different points. When he got tired, he passed the juniper torch to Swallow.

Meanwhile the Firefly people were coming, fighting the fire. They kept on fighting the fire though it was scattered and was hard to put out. The swallow sailed up to the rocky places and started the fires there.

He kept on doing that, going from place to place. Finally the swallow also grew tired.

The fireflies didn’t know what to do by this time. They asked for rain and heavy rain came.

Swallow, when he was tired out, handed the very little that was left to Turtle. Turtle grabbed it and put it in his shell and hid it there, closing his shell. Then came the rain. It was a heavy rain. All the fires were put out except the fire that Turtle had. Lightning and Thunder tried to get it away from Turtle. Lightning struck at him continually, making the marks on his shell that we see today. It rolled him over, but he would not let go. So Turtle saved the fire for us and since then men have used fire. The white streaks and yellow streaks on the turtle shell are the places where the lightning struck at Turtle to make him give up the fire.

Coyote Steals Fire (Second Verion)

There he saw people, down below, dancing and singing. He wanted to go down there but he couldn’t find the way down. It was a place deep down surrounded by big bluffs on all sides. Coyote stood there and danced and sang and had a merry time too. The others below heard him and looked up.

“Oh, there’s that rascal, Coyote!” they said. “Let’s bring him down here.” So they sent Spider to bring him down. The spider came and bound him with spider web, and they dragged Coyote down. Coyote had some arrows. They said to each other. “We have him down here now. Don’t tell him about the road out of here.”

After a while Coyote began to wonder how the people got out of that place. He would see people down below and then see them up above. He went to some boys, but they all ran away, for they had been warned not to tell. But he kept asking them. At first the boys said, “No, we won’t tell.”

“Well,” Coyote said, “let’s play a shooting game.”

He played with the boys, for they also had bows. He won many arrows from them. Some still had a few arrows and he said, “Let’s play a sliding arrow game.” So they played this game and Coyote won all the arrows from the boys. He went about among the camps. The boys went back too. Only one boy was walking around. Coyote went up to him. The little boy had been told by the larger ones not to tell him the way out.

Coyote went to the boy. “They are jealous; that’s why they try to get you away from me. They don’t want you to have all these arrows. If you show me the road to the top, I’ll give you all these arrows.” ¹

“I’ll show you. Go to the edge, to that evergreen sapling, and tell it to bend down. It will pick you up.”

So Coyote went around as though he didn’t know. At dusk he went there to try it. He stood under the sapling and said, “Reach down and help me.” It did so. Then he told it to take him down and it did. He had tried it both ways and proved it. He returned to the camps and got a fire drill and juniper bark and tied them under his tail. Then he said to the people, “Let’s have a dance.” He kept talking about dancing all the time. So they started to dance. Soon Coyote went in to dance. He had that material for making a torch tied under his tail. They were dancing in a circle. He was acting silly. All were watching him and saying, “Look at Coyote! He’s having a good time.”

He danced near to the fire. His tail went in. He looked at it. “Look out, Coyote,” someone said, “you’ll get burned.”

“No, I don’t care. When I’m having a good time I don’t care if I fall in the fire. If I get a burn it will remind me of the place where I had such a good time dancing.”

So Coyote kept his tail in the fire till the bark and the drill caught fire. Then he said, “I’m doing this because I’m having such a good time.” The drill was now on fire. One of the wise people there called out, “Look out! He’s after the fire. Don’t let him get away.”

Just then Coyote jumped. He jumped four times over the four rows. He made believe he didn’t know the road. He ran first one way and then another. The people ran after him but they thought he didn’t know the way out and couldn’t get away. Then suddenly Coyote stopped dashing around and made straight for the tree. “Bend down and take me to the top,” he told it. It bent down and threw him on top. He took the fire stick from under his tail and set fire to the grass, the trees, and everything that would bum around there. “This will be good for burning,” he said to the trees and grass he touched.

The people got on top. They tried to put out the fire. Some chased Coyote. He was getting tired. He called to Buzzard, “You take this torch and do your best.”

Buzzard took it to the high mountains and set fire to the trees there. The people were still chasing after the fire to put it out. Buzzard got tired. He handed the torch to Cliff Swallow. When he was tired he handed it to Nighthawk.

The people couldn’t stop the fire themselves. They called for rain. Heavy rain came; it was a big storm with lightning. The fire was all put out except some which Turtle got hold of. Turtle thought it was very pretty and picked up some red coals and hid them under his shell at his breast. All during the rain he blew on them and kept them burning. While he was doing this all the other fire was put out. Lightning saw that Turtle had a little fire. He wanted to make the turtle throw the coals away and struck at Turtle, but he couldn’t make him drop it. All the streaks, the yellow streaks on Turtle’s shell are from the striking of the lightning. That is how Turtle got those marks on his shell. But finally the wind came and carried the cloud away and the storm was over. So fire was saved.

The people who lived in the place surrounded by cliffs were the fire­ flies. 1 The Firefly people, after the}’ lost the fire, said to Coyote, “You are the one who did this. Therefore you shall not use fire. You and the wild animals will have to eat your food uncooked.”

Since that time the lightning bug has lived in swampy places where no one can get to it.

Fire Punishes Coyote

After the cloud and rain had cleared up, the smoke rose up again. The fireflies sent a message to Fire himself. They said to him, “Now you chase that coyote. Run after him until he is all worn out!”

Coyote was sitting there on the ground . Pretty soon he began to feel queer. He was getting very hot. The ground around him began to crumble. He got up and walked off.

He went to a big flat rock and sat on that. The fire followed him. He could hear the rock popping. He was frightened when he noticed this and started to run. The fire ran after him. He jumped in the water. The water began to boil. It got too uncomfortable. He ran out again and started off in another direction.

These Fire people sent the fire after him wherever he went. He couldn’t get away. He was worn out. He was ready to roll over. He stopped and prayed. He heard a voice say, “What are you talking about?” “See that ground over there get hot and crumble? That’s what I have been trying to get away from. Those fireflies have sent that fire after me because I stole the fire from them . Do you know anything that will help me?”

“Yes, I have something for that.”

There was a prayer of some kind. The owner of the voice was making his ceremony. Then the fire stopped. No one knows who it was that helped Coyote.

The fireflies told him, “From now on all you four-footed animals and wild beasts are not going to use fire to cook your food.” The fireflies gave them a rule that way.

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1: Opler’s Footnote, from Informant: “This story shows why some people, when they are told not to reveal a secret, do it in spite of orders not to. They act just as this disobedient child did in the beginning; they take something for telling.”