Reading Notes: Apache, Part B

Story: Coyote Tries to Make His Children Spotted

Story source: Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911).

Fawns
I really enjoyed all of the Apache coyote stories. It looks like Coyote was very busy and always in some kind of mischief. However, there was one story where the Coyote was tricked into killing his young, and I thought it was pretty sad.

Plot Summary:

A Coyote encountered a deer in the Arroyo among the willows. Seeing the spotted fawns, the Coyote asked, "How do you make your little ones so spotted?" The deer told him that they are born that way. The Coyote did not believe it and said that he must do something to them to make them that way. The deer then told him that he digs a hole in the top of the hill where the wind blows and pile a lot of cedar wood in from, and set fire to it. The sparks that fly out makes them spotted.

The Coyote went home eager to make his children spotted. He did as the deer told him. They climbed over each other, crying until the fire killed them. 

When the fire had burned down he looked at them. When he saw their lips turned back and their teeth showing in white rows he said. "O, you are laughing because you are so beautifully spotted." He took one of them by the arm, but when he pulled, it came off. They were thoroughly cooked.

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