16 TRADITIONS OF THE CADDO. 
All except Coyote decided to have the people die and be gone for a 
little while, and then to come back to life. 
The medicine-men built a large grass house facing the east, and 
when they had completed it they called all of the men of the tribe to- 
gether and told them that they had decided to have the people who 
died come to the medicine-house and there be restored to life. The 
chief medicine-man said that he would put a large white and black 
eagle feather on top of the grass house, and that when the feather be- 
came bloody and fell over, the people would know that some one had 
died. ‘Then all of the medicine-men were to come to the grass house 
and sing. ‘They would sing a song that would call the spirit of the 
dead to the grass house, and when the spirit came they would cause it 
to assume the form that it had while living, and then they would re- 
store it to life again. All of the people were glad when the medicine- 
men announced these rules about death, for they were anxious for the 
dead to be restored to life and come again to live with them. 
After a time they saw the eagle feather turn bloody and fall, and so 
they knew that some one had died. ‘The medicine-men assembled in 
the grass house and sang, as they had promised that they would, for 
the spirit of the dead to come to them. In about ten days a whirl- 
wind blew from the west, circled about the grass house, and finally en- 
tered through the entrance in the east. From the whirlwind appeared 
a handsome young man who had been murdered by another tribe. 
All of the people saw him and rejoiced except Coyote, who was dis- 
pleased because his rules about dead were not carried out. Ina short 
time the feather became bloody and fell again. Coyote saw it and at 
once went to the grass house. He took his seat near the door, and 
there sat with the singers for many days, and when at last he heard 
the whirlwind coming he slipped near the door, and as the whirlwind 
circled about the house and was about to enter, he closed the door. 
The spirit in the whirlwind, finding the door closed, whirled on by. 
Death forever was then introduced, and people from that time on 
grieved about the dead and were unhappy. Now whenever any one 
meets a whirlwind or hears the wind whistle he says: ‘‘ There is some 
one wandering about.’’ Ever since Coyote closed the door the spirits 
of the dead have wandered over the earth, trying to find some place to 
go, until at last they find the road to spirit land. 
Coyote jumped up and ran away and never came back, for when he 
saw what he had done he was afraid. Ever after that he ran from one 
place to another, always looking back over first one shoulder and then 
over the other, to see if any one was pursuing him, and ever since then 
he has been starving, for no one will give him anything to eat. 
