Coyote was living there. He went down to the big sea. No Indians were living at that time. Coyote thought he might find some. He lay down, covered himself with a blanket of jack-rabbit skins, and commenced to sing and move his legs. While singing, he felt something touching his legs. He looked up and saw nothing. He covered him self up again and continued singing. Again he felt something dancing on the lower part of his body. He looked around and saw nothing. Coyote made a peep-hole in his blanket; then he saw a pretty girl dancing on his legs. He did not know what to do; when he threw off his blanket, she disappeared.
The next time when he felt the touch of the girl, he jumped up and pursued her. Near the shore of the sea, he caught up to her. He asked her what she was doing. She said her mother had sent her. "Where do you live?" he asked. She pointed out an island far away in the sea, and offered to take him to her home. Coyote agreed to go with her. She took him on her back,and began to walk across the sea.She dropped him into the sea and walked on, thinking he was drowned; but Coyote crawled up, like a spider, and swam towards the island.
Coyote got to the island first, and saw two wikiups with the smoke rising, and between them sat an old woman. Coyote spoke to her. She asked him to come inside and sit down. He went in. After a while the girl came in and talked to the old woman, who was her mother. She said, "I dropped Coyote in the water." Her mother said, "Keep still; he is in there now." When the girl peeped in, she saw Coyote sitting there. She cooked duck eggs for him and set them just in front of him, touching his feet. As soon as she touched his feet, he immediately drew them back. He ate only a few eggs. He was eager for the night to come.
Coyote looked around and noticed quivers hanging all over the lodge. This frightened him; he went outside, eased himself, and asked his anus for advice. He asked why those quivers were hanging there. He had also noticed that the women, while pre- tending to swallow the food, let it slide downr to the abdominal region, where he heard the eggs crack. His anus said, "You fool; whenever the girl and her mother get hold of a man, they kill and eat him. Take your elk horn scraper and break their teeth."
In the evening, the old woman told the girl to lie down near Coyote. Before retiring, all three went outside. When they came in, the old woman fastened the door with a rope so Coyote should not escape. Coyote was
afraid. When he lay down, he wished the rats would come and gnaw up the rope. After a while, he heard the rats come and gnaw up the rope. Then he knew that he could run out if necessary, and raised the girl's blanket.
Coyote escaped. He jumped into the sea and swam across, splashing in the water. He had a hard time of it; but got out in the place where he had first lain down to rest. He had left his tools there. He went to sleep again. When he woke up he put on paint, went to the shore, and killed a duck. Coyote returned to where the old woman was sitting, and threw the duck with some eggs over to her. The girl was not there; because she was on the water every day, looking for people to take home and kill. In the evening, she returned with some ducks. Coyote had entered the wikiup; but the old woman was still sitting outside. The girl told her mother she had not found Coyote anywhere. "Keep still," the old woman said, "he is in there." The girl looked in and saw Coyote, who looked handsome with his face painted. She fed him as before, setting duck eggs before him. When she touched his feet, Coyote quickly pulled them in. He only ate a few eggs, pushing the rest aside. The women ate in their usual way. Coyote could hear the egg-shells cracking in the vulva.
In the evening, the old woman told her daughter to lie down beside
Coyote. The girl lay down. Coyote went outside to get his tools, which he had not taken into the wikiup. He lay down and embraced the girl. The girl cried out, "Something is wrong with my teeth." The old woman misunderstood what she said, and said to her, "Keep it there." Coyote now went over to the mother, and in the same way broke off all her teeth. They told Coyote to go outside and fetch water; but to get it from far away where they were in the habit of getting it. Coyote was afraid to go there, and fetched water from near-by instead. When he returned the old woman told him that he had not brought good water, and sent him out again. He went for it once more.
As soon as Coyote was gone, the babies fell in great numbers out of the women's wombs. The women took the water brought in by Coyote and washed the babies. They made all the tribes of Indians in this way except the Shoshone, whom they left lying on one side. When Coyote came in, they said, "We have left these for you to wash." Coyote washed the Sho shone babies and said to them; "You are my children. I am going to stay with you." If he had washed all the babies, there would have been nothing but Shoshone in the world; but the women washed the others. That is why the other tribes were always fighting the Shoshone. Coyote told his children to be brave and not be afraid of the other Indians.
Coyote once came to an old woman and her daughter. He saw bows and arrows hanging in their lodge. The old woman warned him against the girl. - She said her daughter was in the habit of killing and eating people who came there. Coyote considered what to do. In
the evening the girl came in with ducks and their eggs. Coyote went off. He found a kind of blue stone. He also plucked some thorns from a rose bush. He waited for the night to come. In the night Coyote lay Jown by the girl. Coyote married the girl and their children were the ancestors of the Shoshone.
A Shoshone Legend