THE HOUND OF THE PLAINS. 367 



earth after two or three days, as he himself does ; hut the coyote was 

 evil disposed, and declared that when men died the survivors must 

 burn their bodies. The moon was obliged to acquiesce, but before long 

 caused the death of the coyote's son, and insisted upon the application 

 of the law, to the coyote's great disgust. This recalls also a myth of 

 the Bonaks, or Bannacks (of Southern Idaho), who believe themselves 

 to have been developed out of coyotes by the gradual loss of useless 

 members and a slow adaptation to environment. AVhen one of these 

 coyote ancestors died, various animal shapes would spring from the 

 body, many of which took wings and flew away to the moon. The old 

 coyotes, fearing the earth might become depopulated, instituted the 

 cremation of corpses. 



In the wonderful adventures of the SoJcus Wa't-iin-ats, who was 

 first one, then two, in his long contest with Stone Shirt (as told to 

 Major Powell by the Indians who live at the lower end of the Colo- 

 rado canons), Cin-au-av appears " extremely proud of his fame as a 

 hunter," but consoles himself by philosophy under the chagrin of a 

 failure. "What matters it," he observes, " who kills the game, when 

 we can all eat it ? " — a maxim worthy of a coyote ! In that long solar 

 myth told by Utes, how Ta-vicots, the little rabbit, went to kill the 

 sun and caused the conflagration of the world, Cin-au-av is the owner 

 of the first field he comes to, and the producer of the ancient corn 

 whose seed descended to plant the fields of to-day ; and he is the hero 

 of many another religious story told by Shoshonee and Kalispel fire- 

 sides. Nor is this true of Flathead, Ute, and Shoshonees alone. The 

 native races of Northern California were superior in all respects to 

 those living in the southern part of the State ; and among them 

 legendary lore reached a degree of perfection not common with "West- 

 ern Indians. In most of these fables the coyote plays a conspicuous 

 part, for the forces of Nature, in whose phenomena most of these sto- 

 ries find their natural origin, are portrayed there (as among the Sho- 

 shonees) by animal personages. These ancient animal-gods, repre- 

 sented by degenerate descendants, have also duplicate spirits that visit 

 the world, and whose influence can be secured. Thus, when one Ka- 

 rok has killed another, he frequently barks like a coyote, in the belief 

 that thereby he will be endued with so much of that animal's cunning 

 as will enable him to elude punishment. Perhaps the custom of the 

 medicine-women of this nation of squatting beside an ill man and bark- 

 ing at him for hours together, indicates a similar prayer for sagacity in 

 diagnosis. 



The deity and creator of the Karok religion was Kareya, who made 

 the fishes, the mammals, and finally The Man. Him he commanded 

 to assemble all the animals, in order to assign to each its rank, by dis- 

 tributing bows and arrows, the longest to the most powerful, and so 

 on down the scale. The beasts and birds came together the night 

 before the distribution, and all went to sleep except the coyote, who 



