i84 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. VIII. 



The mother laughed at it and was very happy, saying: "Thanks that 

 he brought you here, and that you got home even without becoming 

 tired." And the Turtles are living there in that water still. 



.S9. THE WATER SERPENT AND THE COYOTE.' 



Listen ! The people were here living (Aliksai ! Yao yep y^shiwa) . 

 The Water Serpent (Balolookong) was living in Lanva, the Flute 

 Spring, and a short distance towards the south at Ishmovala the Coyote 

 was living. They were strong friends and often visited each other. 

 They were still young, but the Water Serpent was already very 

 long so that when he visited the Coyote and coiled up in his kiva 

 he filled the entire kiva, leaving only a very small place for the Coyote, 

 near the fireplace, where he had to sit in a crouched position. " I am 

 going to be still larger," the Water Serpent said to him onetime, "so 

 you must enlarge your kiva." He then invited the Coyote to visit 

 him once too, which the Coyote promised to do. 



He meditated howhe,too,couldfillthekivaof the Water Serpent and 

 said to the Snake : " I am going to become large and my tail will become 

 long some day, too." While he said this the Snake was already 

 slowly leaving the kiva, but he was so long that when the head was 

 out already, a large part of the body was still in the kiva. After he 

 had left, the Coyote said to himself: " Now, let me go and hunt some- 

 thing, too." In the evening he left the kiva and went to a place 

 where a .great deal of cedar grew. Here he pulled off a large bundle 

 of cedar bark and carried it home. " How shall I make a tail now?" 

 he said to himself. Soon he began to rub the cedar bark so as to 

 make it pliable, and laying it out on the floor in a long line, wrapped 

 it up with yucca leaves, which he had also brought with him. " But 

 how shall I make this tail so that the Snake will not know it?" he 

 again asked himself, but soon formed a plan. He pulled out a lot 

 of his hair and pasted it to the cedar bark so that it looked like a tail. 

 This false tail he then fastened to his own tail. 



In the morning when he had had his breakfast he went over to his 

 friend, the Water Serpent. The latter had a larger kiva, so that there 

 was some vacant space in it. When the Ccryote had entered he kept 

 going around the kiva dragging his long tail after him. Then he 

 kept circling around until the kiva also was well filled, and he sat 

 down by the head of the Water Serpent and they talked with one an- 

 other. The Water Serpent smiled, thinking to himself: "Well, that 

 tail did not used to be this way, how can that be?" After they had 



' Told by Qoyawaima (Oraibi) . 



