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 |  | Monday November 23, 2009 3:09 AM |
 | | Native American Myths and Legends | |
How Coyote Stole Fire
Long ago, when man was newly come into the world,
there were days when he was the happiest creature of
all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the
willow tails, or when his children ripened with the
blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod
bloomed in the autumn haze.
But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more
chill, and the sun's strokes grew shorter. Then man saw
winter moving near, and he became fearful and
unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the
grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their
heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young
and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of
winter.
Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire.
So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring
day when he was passing a human village. There the
women were singing a song of mourning for the babies
and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their
voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo
skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote's neck.
"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs," one of
the men was saying. "Feel how it warms the earth and
makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could
have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during
the winter."
Coyote, overhearing this, felt sorry for the men and
women. He also felt that there was something he could
do to help them. He knew of a faraway mountain-top
where the three Fire Beings lived. These Beings kept
fire to themselves, guarding it carefully for fear that
man might somehow acquire it and become as strong as
they. Coyote saw that he could do a good turn for man
at the expense of these selfish Fire Beings.
So Coyote went to the mountain of the Fire Beings and
crept to its top, to watch the way that the Beings
guarded their fire. As he came near, the Beings leaped
to their feet and gazed searchingly round their camp.
Their eyes glinted like bloodstones, and their hands
were clawed like the talons of the great black vulture.
"What's that? What's that I hear?" hissed one of the
Beings.
"A thief, skulking in the bushes!" screeched another.
The third looked more closely, and saw Coyote. But he
had gone to the mountain-top on all fours, so the Being
thought she saw only an ordinary coyote slinking among
the trees.
"It is no one, it is nothing!" she cried, and the other two
looked where she pointed and also saw only a grey
coyote. They sat down again by their fire and paid
Coyote no more attention.
So he watched all day and night as the Fire Beings
guarded their fire. He saw how they fed it pine cones
and dry branches from the sycamore trees. He saw how
they stamped furiously on runaway rivulets of flame
that sometimes nibbled outwards on edges of dry grass.
He saw also how, at night, the Beings took turns to sit
by the fire. Two would sleep while one was on guard;
and at certain times the Being by the fire would get up
and go into their teepee, and another would come out to
sit by the fire.
Coyote saw that the Beings were always jealously
watchful of their fire except during one part of the day.
That was in the earliest morning, when the first winds of
dawn arose on the mountains. Then the Being by the
fire would hurry, shivering, into the teepee calling,
"Sister, sister, go out and watch the fire." But the next
Being would always be slow to go out for her turn, her
head spinning with sleep and the thin dreams of dawn.
Coyote, seeing all this, went down the mountain and
spoke to some of his friends among the People. He told
them of hairless man, fearing the cold and death of
winter. And he told them of the Fire Beings, and the
warmth and brightness of the flame. They all agreed that
man should have fire, and they all promised to help
Coyote's undertaking.
Then Coyote sped again to the mountain-top. Again the
Fire Beings leaped up when he came close, and one
cried out, "What's that? A thief, a thief!"
But again the others looked closely, and saw only a grey
coyote hunting among the bushes. So they sat down
again and paid him no more attention.
Coyote waited through the day, and watched as night
fell and two of the Beings went off to the teepee to
sleep. He watched as they changed over at certain times
all the night long, until at last the dawn winds rose.
Then the Being on guard called, "Sister, sister, get up
and watch the fire."
And the Being whose turn it was climbed slow and
sleepy from her bed, saying, "Yes, yes, I am coming. Do
not shout so."
But before she could come out of the teepee, Coyote
lunged from the bushes, snatched up a glowing portion
of fire, and sprang away down the mountainside.
Screaming, the Fire Beings flew after him. Swift as
Coyote ran, they caught up with him, and one of them
reached out a clutching hand. Her fingers touched only
the tip of the tail, but the touch was enough to turn the
hairs white, and coyote tail-tips are white still. Coyote
shouted, and flung the fire away from him. But the
others of the People had gathered at the mountain's
foot, in case they were needed. Squirrel saw the fire
falling, and caught it, putting it on her back and fleeing
away through the tree-tops. The fire scorched her back
so painfully that her tail curled up and back, as squirrels'
tails still do today.
The Fire Beings then pursued Squirrel, who threw the
fire to Chipmunk. Chattering with fear, Chipmunk stood
still as if rooted until the Beings were almost upon her.
Then, as she turned to run, one Being clawed at her,
tearing down the length of her back and leaving three
stripes that are to be seen on chipmunks' backs even
today. Chipmunk threw the fire to Frog, and the Beings
turned towards him. One of the Beings grasped his tail,
but Frog gave a mighty leap and tore himself free,
leaving his tail behind in the Being's hand---which is
why frogs have had no tails ever since.
As the Beings came after him again, Frog flung the fire
on to Wood. And Wood swallowed it.
The Fire Beings gathered round, but they did not know
how to get the fire out of Wood. They promised it gifts,
sang to it and shouted at it. They twisted it and struck it
and tore it with their knives. But Wood did not give up
the fire. In the end, defeated, the Beings went back to
their mountain-top and left the People alone.
But Coyote knew how to get fire out of Wood. And he
went to the village of men and showed them how. He
showed them the trick of rubbing two dry sticks
together, and the trick of spinning a sharpened stick in a
hole made in another piece of wood. So man was from
then on warm and safe through the killing cold of
winter.
(???) Origin unknown. Found on the web in 1996.
Last Updated
December 23, 2004
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