ONE TIME SOME MOUSE Girls were down on the beach and they found a ringed seal. Coyote saw it from a distance at the same time and came running over. The Mouse Girls quickly tried to hide the seal in the sand.
“What have you got there?” said Coyote.
“A stick.”
“It has eyes.”
“It is a stick with eyes.”
“It has flippers.”
“It is a stick with flippers.”
“It has whiskers.”
“It is a stick with whiskers.”
Coyote got tired of arguing and pushed them aside. He picked up the ringed seal and went home with it. His wife skinned it and put some of it away and cooked the rest for dinner. When they went to bed there was still some left in the pot.
That night the Mouse Girls sneaked into Coyote’s lodge and ate what was left of the seal. Then they defecated in the pot.
The next morning Coyote rolled over and asked his wife to give him some of the seal that was left over. She was half asleep and when she reached in and found nothing but excrement she let out a yell. “Oh, look at this! Look what those Mouse Girls have done! Look at this mess.”
Coyote was angry. He said to his wife, “Give me my bow and arrows.” He was going out after the Mouse Girls. But she just gave him a small stick and his son’s bow. Coyote found the Mouse Girls down by the beach and he ran up to them, notching the stick into his bow. The Mouse Girls huddled together, shuddering, pretending they were frightened. “Oh, Grandfather, we are sorry,” they said. “We won’t do that again. Please let us louse you.”
Coyote thought he might have frightened his granddaughters too much, so he let them louse him. After a while he fell asleep. The Mouse Girls tied a bladder to his buttocks and woke him up.
“Oh, Grandfather, you better go defecate, your belly looks all swollen. Over here is a good dry place.”
Coyote went over and defecated but when he turned around to look there was nothing on the ground. Coyote defecated again and heard the sound of its landing but there was nothing on the ground when he turned around.
Coyote went home and told his wife. “A very strange thing has happened to me. I was defecating a while ago. I could hear the sounds when it hit the ground but when I turned around there was nothing there.”
“Turn around and let me see,” said his wife. When he turned around his wife took a look and said, “Why, you have a big bladder tied up under your anus, that’s the trouble.”
When he heard this Coyote knew what had happened and he called for his bow and arrows. But his wife just gave him the other things.
Coyote found the Mouse Girls again and they huddled together when they saw him, as though they were afraid. “Oh, Grandfather, we will never do that again. Please. Let us louse you. You will feel much better.”
“I have frightened my little granddaughters,” he thought to himself. “All right,” he said to them, and he lay down.
They began lousing him and he soon fell asleep. They hung red fir tassels over his eyes and woke him up. “Oh, Grandfather, look over there at your house.” Coyote looked over. “Hey, my house is on fire!” He ran toward the house as fast as he could, yelling for his wife. His wife came running out but couldn’t understand what was wrong with him, why he was jumping all around. Then she looked at Coyote’s eyes.
“Come over here,” she said. “They have hung fir tassels from your eyebrows.”
“I am going to kill those Mouse Girls. Give me my bow and arrows.” But his wife just gave him the stick and the child’s bow.
Coyote found the girls again and was all ready to shoot them, but they spoke softly and said they would be good and asked to louse him. Coyote said it would be all right but that he didn’t want any tricks.
Coyote lay down and after a while he fell asleep. The Mouse Girls tattooed his face and changed his hair all around so he looked like a woman and then woke him up. “Grandfather, you look pale. You should go down to the stream and get a drink.”
Coyote went down to the stream and when he saw his reflection he thought he was seeing one of the beautiful women of the Caribou People. He told her not to move. He said he was going to marry her right away and that she should wait there while he ran home and got his things and came back to live with her.
When he got home, Coyote gathered up everything he owned and piled it all up outside his lodge. When he had it all together he lifted the load up to his shoulders. It was an enormous pile. He could hardly be seen underneath it.
“Where are you going with all that?” said his wife.
“I am going to live with a different woman. I have met a beautiful young woman of the Caribou People and I am going to marry her.”
“Is that why you have painted yourself up?”
“What do you mean?”
“You have done something to your face and turned your hair all around. You look ugly.”
“You are just jealous! I am leaving.”
Coyote could barely move under the staggering load of possessions and he stumbled down the trail bumping into trees all the way to the stream. When he looked into the water again he saw the woman. He told her that he was going to give her all his things and he began throwing everything he owned into the stream. Some of the things sank and he was glad to see her taking these things, but some things floated away and he got very angry with her when he saw this.
“Who do you think you are, throwing my presents away like this?” said Coyote and he jumped into the stream to get closer to the woman. But as soon as he jumped in his legs got tangled up in the huge pile of things he had thrown in and then his arms got bound up in something and he drowned.
A few days later Coyote washed up on the beach. Some people came along and brought him back to life. They took him home. In those days you found Coyote like that all the time.