THE COYOTE AND THE MICE SUN DANCE. 137 
49. THE COYOTE AND THE MICE SUN DANCE.* 
While the Coyote was wandering in the evening he heard dancing, 
but he could not see the dance anywhere. He went on walking around 
and hunting for the dance. He was about to give up, when he found 
that the noise of the dancing came from an elk skull in the bushes. 
The Mice ran away as soon as the Coyote came up, but the Coyote 
begged to see them dance. He addressed them thus, “Uncles, I want 
to see you dance.” The Mice said: “We are afraid of you, for you 
may eat us. We would like to see you, but you are very tricky, and you 
might eat us.” The Coyote begged so hard, saying he had not seen his 
uncles for many months, and he wanted to see them; so the Mice 
agreed to let him into the dance. They let the Coyote peep into the 
back part of the skull, so that he could see the dance. As soon as the 
Coyote had run his head through the skull the Mice ran away, and the 
Coyote was held fast with his head in the skull. The Coyote begged 
the Mice to take the skull off, but the Mice would not listen to him. 
They told him to go away. So the Coyote went on his way, with the 
skull on his head. 
The Coyote could not see very well, on account of the skull being 
over his eyes. He heard some noises at a distance. He went straight 
to a camp. He came to the edge of some water. The people saw 
the animal coming on the other side of the water, and some of them 
hallooed, ‘““A wonderful animal coming on.the other side of the water!” 
When the Coyote saw that the people were scared he commenced to 
make funny noises. Some of the people said, “Make way, so that we 
may be spared and live.” The Coyote said, “Give me the chief’s daugh- 
ter and you shall all live.’ The people gave him the chief’s daughter. 
The Coyote swam across the water and the people made a tipi for him. 
The girl took the Coyote by the horns and led him to the tipi. The 
Coyote stayed with the girl all night. In the morning the Coyote and 
the girl were sent for to come and eat. The Coyote was still close to 
the girl, and some boy saw that it was a Coyote. The boy yelled, “This 
being that is in the tipi with the girl is nothing but a Coyote!” The 
people rushed there and the Coyote was forced out beyond the tipi. 
As he could not see very well he ran into people and dogs. The people 
struck the skull until they broke it to pieces. They caught the Coyote 
and brought him home. They tied his legs with strings, drove some 
pegs into the ground, and tied him fast to the pegs. As the people went 
out they would go to the Coyote and urinate and defecate on him. 
*Told by Joe Reed, 
