THE COYOTE AND THE BEAR. 287 
52. THE COYOTE AND THE BEAR.* 
Once upon a time there lived the Coyote (Ketox) with his family. 
He wandered around from place to place hunting for food or working 
up some kind of a scheme on some others. Once upon a time he got 
up before daylight and went towards the north. He kept on going 
further and further. After daylight he came to a place where he heard 
a Bear (Widaw) coming, whooping at him and asking him why he 
should come to a place where he himself wandered, for he did not 
allow anyone to come to this place without killing him. The Coyote 
was frightened, and did not know what to do when he saw the Bear 
coming toward him. Just then some foolish idea came to his mind, and 
he thought that he had better play a trick on the Bear. As soon as the 
Bear approached the Coyote ordered him to stop, and not to kill him 
until his father looked at him. This Bear then stopped for a moment 
and wondered who his father was. Finally, the Coyote saw that every- 
thing was in his favor, and so he rushed forth toward the Bear, and just 
then the Sun rose. The Coyote then requested the Bear to go ahead and 
kill him or else he would kill the Bear. The Bear began to back, and the 
Coyote went forth toward him, and ran over him, and again asked him 
to make haste in killing him, saying that his father was now looking 
at him, and that that was the finest time for him to die. The Bear 
began to back up and give up all hopes of ever living again, because he 
thought that he had tried to kill the son of the Sun. The Bear thought 
to himself: ‘Well, now I have powers from the Sun myself, and if 
this man is the son of the Sun, he surely must have greater powers than 
Ihave.” The Coyote kept pushing him around, asking him to hurry and 
kill him while his father was looking at him. He said that then he 
would find out what his father could do for him, and that if he at- 
tempted to make his escape it did not make any difference where he 
went ; that he could be found and killed just the same, and that there was 
no chance for him to get away. The Bear finally begged the Coyote 
to allow him to live, and offered to let him have some of his powers; 
but the Coyote said to the Bear: “The powers you have do not equal 
mine, so I have no use for them.” 
The Coyote kept pushing the Bear back, telling him that he had 
made a mistake by trying to bulldoze him. The Bear again begged him 
not to kill him, and promised to go to ‘his home with him and do all his 
work for him, and do the hunting for him and to feed his children. 
The Coyote then said to the Bear: “Now, you have made a good 
promise to me, and I am going to let you live. I was going to kill 
*Told by Towakoni Jim (Towakoni). 
