252 THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE WICHITA. 
40. THE COYOTE WHO LOST HIS POWERS.* 
At the time when the Coyote (Ketox) saved the lives of many . 
people there were two villages, on in the east and the other in the west, 
situated some distance apart. The people of both villages were in the 
habit of going on the war-path, but on the return of their war-parties 
the conduct of the people in the east village was very different from 
that of the people in the west village. On the return of the war-parties 
from the east village the people had good times; but when a war-party 
returned to the west village there was crying, which, when it was heard 
at the east village, excited wonder, for the people in the east village 
knew that both villages were accustomed to sending out the same kind 
of parties. They thought it must be that the enemy met the war-parties 
of the west village and killed off all their men. | 
Once upon a time the Coyote resolved to visit this village, stay 
there until a war-party should go out, and find out why the people 
cried. He went to the village. A war-party was sent out, and the 
Coyote went along with them, to see what would happen to the men, 
so that he might find out why the people cried on the return of the 
war-party. They traveled all that day, and late in the evening the men 
stopped, and, there being so many of them, they gathered plenty of wood 
in a very short time. The Coyote noticed that the men cut some dog- 
wood. He wondered, and, to be like the rest, he began ‘to cut some dog- 
wood ‘himself, though he did not cut as much as did the others. The sun 
having set, the men made a fire. Then some one was heard to ask from 
a distance in the north, which was the way to the fire. So the man 
was directed the way to the fire. The Coyote wondered why the man 
should ask which way he should come. The Coyote was anxious to 
learn who the man was and why he had come. The man came up to 
the fire, and as soon as the Coyote saw him he was afraid of him, for 
he was dressed entirely different from any man that the Coyote had 
ever seen. His bonnet was red and hung down his back to the ground. 
Fringes of human hair hung from the sides of his legs and arms. Each 
of his legs was marked in front with four black dots like the eyes 
ofia human being. In his right hand he held a war-club. His name was 
Sign-that-the-Enemy-would-be-weakened (Hossednawa), a Shooting- 
Star. But when living as a human being he had great powers, some 
good and some bad. He was a sort of evil-spirited man. The dress 
which he wore was made of tanned hides and was finished with hair of 
a human being. When he walked it sounded like thunder and the 
*Told by Ignorant-Woman (Man) (Towakoni). 
