poas] KUTENAI TALES 293 
to touch any one with it. When he is skinning the mangy cow, it turns into a fat 
buffalo. A dog tries to get some of the meat. The woman touches it with the arrow, 
and the dog falls down dead. When she touches it again, the dog revives. Coyote 
also kills a dog, and tries to revive it by touching it with an arrow, but he is unsuc- 
cessful. Tree Chief’s wife carries the meat in her blanket into her tent. On the 
following morning the blood is transformed into pemmican; the skin, into a painted 
blanket. Coyote is unable to imitate this feat. Coyote tries to make buffalo out of 
buffalo chips, but is unable to do so. Finally Tree Chief gets impatient, and strikes 
Coyote with a firebrand, intending to kill him. 
Coyote runs westward, while Tree Chief goes eastward. Tree Chief says both will 
come back at the end of the world. 
209 
211 
213 
Second Version (VAEU 23).—Tree Chief is Coyote’s friend. Golden Eagle asks (166) 
Tree Chief to marry his daughter. The two young men start, and on the way Coyote 
throws Tree Chief into a pit. He asks for the bird which Tree Chief carries on his 
head, for his blanket and saliva. He puts these on, leaves Tree Chief in the pit, and 
goes to the village of Golden Eagle, where he marries the girl. Tree Chief transforms 
himself into an infant. The owner of the pit and his wife try who can reach the child 
first. Tree Chief by magic makes the soil loose where the woman is digging, so that 
she reaches him first. When the boy is a few years old, he asks for a snare in order to 
catch birds. He sets it, moves his hands, and the snare is full of birds. He asks for 
the skin of a buffalo calf and makes a netted ring. He tells the old people to lie 
down, and rolls the ring against the tent. The ring becomes a buffalo calf, which he 
kills. The intestines, which the woman puts away according to the boy’s orders, are 
transformed into pemmican. The same happens to the skin of a one-year-old buffalo, 
which is transformed into a young bull, which he kills. He tells the old people that 
he is Tree Chief. He goes to the river and meets Golden Eagle’s younger daughter, 
whom he marries. The people are starving because the buffaloes have disappeared. 
Tree Chief tells the hunters to wait at a buffalo drive. By kicking buffalo chips he 
transforms them into buffaloes, which are driven to a precipice. There are two bul- 
faloes for each hunter. Tree Chief selects an old lean one for himself. He tells his 
wife not to strike their dog. When she disobeys, the dog falls down dead. He tells 
her to strike the dog again, and the dog revives. Coyote is unable to imitate this. 
Tree Chief drives away Coyote, reminding him that he had tried to kill him, 
6. Corore anD Fox ! (No. 1).—Coyote asks Fox for his blanket. They race. (This 
‘is probably a reference to the tale of Coyote borrowing Fox’s blanket and being carried 
away by the wind.) 
7. Coyore anp Locust (No. 2).—Coyote carries Locust. They meeta Grizzly Bear. 
Coyote puts Locust down at the edge of a cliff. Locust scares the female Grizzly 
Bear, who falls down the cliff and dies. Coyote and Locust eat the body. Later on 
they meet the male Grizzly Bear. Coyote is put down and turns into a stump, which 
the Grizzly Bear tries to bite. Coyote is retransformed and gives fat to the bear to 
eat. He says it is beaver fat. The bear asks whether they have scen the female 
Grizzly Bear. After first denying to have seen her, Coyote tells the Bear that he 
1 Okanagon (Hill-Tout JAI 41:152). 
Shuswap (Boas, Sagen 6; Teit JE 2:634, 742). 
Thompson (Teit MAFLS 11:8). 
2 The idea of a person being frightened by the sudden flying up of birds or by a sudden movement, and 
caused to fall down a cliff, is rather widely spread. 
Assiniboin (Lowie PaAM 4:110). 
Lillooet (Teit JAF L 25:305, an incomplete version of the story of Coyote and Grouse). 
Ojibwa ((Jones PAES 7:43, 191, 415). 
Okanagon (Gatschet, Globus 52:138). 
Pawnee (Dorsey CI 59:459). 
Pend d’Oreilles (Teit MAFLS 11:114). 
Sanpoil (Gould MAFLS 11:101). 
Shuswap (Teit JE 2:629, 740). 
