In the beginning Coyote had great power. He said to himself, "Why
remain in
seclusion when I have so much power?" He became restless and wanted
to
travel. He journeyed down the Columbia River, and there he met
Sparrow
(Chis-ka-ka-nar). Sparrow was a warrior, dressed in his beautiful
beaded war
head dress, of which he was very proud. As soon as Coyote saw him, he
thought, "I will kill him and take his head dress."
So he killed Sparrow, and took his quiver of arrows and his beaded
head
dress. He put them on, and felt very brave and proud. He thought
himself
very handsome, -- much handsomer than Sparrow ever had been. He
stepped
about, shaking his head from side to side, and resolved to travel
close to
the river, that he might see his reflection.
As he came around a bend of the river, he saw blue smoke in the
distance
rising from a tent which seemed warm and comfortable. He thought, "I
will
call and see if there is a beautiful maiden to admire me." To his
disappointment, he saw only twelve children.1 They all spoke at once
in
reply to his questions, and he could not understand them. They were
the
Willow-Grouse (Sarsarwas) family, who spoke their own language. They
were
trying to tell him that their parents were gathering berries. Then
Coyote
became angry, and thought they were calling him names. He went out,
gathered
pitch, and put a piece on the eyes of the children. When their
parents
returned, they were all blind.
Then the mother determined to have revenge. She suspected who had
done it,
as they had seen Coyote tracks near by. She said to her husband, "Do
you
remember the high cliff by the river? We will hide behind some
bushes and
scare him as he comes along the edge of the cliff."
As Coyote was going along the trail, he was singing his war-chant.
All at
once there was a roar that scared him. He gave a jump and fell over
the
cliff. He knew that he was in danger of death. Quickly he turned
himself
into a basket, which floated lightly on the water below. It drifted
down
with the current.2 At that time there were two sisters who lived by
the
river. Near by was a solid rock dam which they guarded with jealous
care. No
one was allowed to come near. Silver-salmon were kept within the dam
as
their food.
Coyote knew of these salmon, and made up his mind to release them.
He waited
until morning. The younger sister (Steneechken) went down to get a
salmon
for breakfast. She saw the basket-dish floating on the water. She
landed it,
and took it to her tent. The elder sister (Wiswiskin) said, "No,
sister, do
not keep the dish. Throw it into the river. It may bring us
misfortune." The
younger one would not give it up. She ate out of it. Each day after
her meal
she left some salmon in it when she put it away.
Every day at this time of the year they went to pick berries. When
they
returned, they would find the dish empty. The elder sister became
alarmed,
and insisted that the dish be thrown into the fire. When she did so,
it made
a loud report, and a little boy came out of the fire. The younger
sister was
delighted, and kept him, although the elder sister objected. They
made a bow
and arrows for him, so that he could amuse himself while they were
away.
Each morning after the sisters had left home, the boy worked at the
dam with
a hard rock instrument he had made. After he had been there one
month, the
girls did not find him when they came home in the evening. They ran
to the
dam, and found that he had taken the form of a man. He was digging
at a hole
that he had made in the dam. They tried to crush him, but he had a
piece of
horn on his head. Just then the water broke through and separated
him from
them. He called to the girls, who were weeping on the bank, "Women
were
never intended to guard salmon."
He started up the stream, and the salmon followed him. As he went
away, he
turned one sister into a water-snipe, and the other into a kildee.
They
always live near the water and eat fish.
Coyote traveled up the river with the salmon. Whenever Coyote met
people, he
made a salmon jump out of the water into his arms.1 Then he cooked
it and
asked the people to eat.
At one place he met a number of girls picking berries. They were very
beautiful, and he decided to select one of them for his wife. He
winked his
eye, brought salmon from the water, and feasted the girls. They were
pleased, and their parents wanted him to take one of the maidens, so
that
they might always have salmon to eat. He fell in love with one of
the girls,
who had a fine voice, and who was in the habit of using it to hear
her words
repeated by the echo.
When Coyote asked her to be his wife, she refused him with scorn. He
became
angry, and started back down the river, taking the salmon with him.
He
stopped at the Forks of the Similkameen, about five miles from the
Okanagan.
There he formed falls to keep the salmon from going up. Then he made
falls
in the Okanagan, Kettle, and Columbia Rivers, because in all these
places
the maidens refused him.
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