130 TRADITIONS OF THE CADDO. 
52. RABBIT AND THE DANCING TURKEYS. 
Rabbit and Wild-Cat meet and begin to fight. To save his own life, Rabbit says 
he will show Wild-Cat how to catch Turkeys. He tells him to stand still while he 
sings Turkey dance song. Rabbit sings, and then tells Wild-Cat to lie down and 
pretend to be dead. Turkeys hear song and come to see what it is about. Rabbit 
tells them he has killed Wild-Cat and they are to dance victory song. Turkeys dance 
and Wild-Cat jumps up and grabs big Turkey. As he does so Rabbit runs away and 
escapes. 
53. ADVENTURES OF COYOTE. 
In beginning of world people held councils to decide about things. Question 
comes up, what kind of rain there shall be. Rain in form of lead balls is proposed. 
Coyote objects, as lead would be dangerous, and suggests drops of water. This is 
accepted. Coyote goes traveling and comes to place where great powerful Bear 
lives. Bear says if he is Coyote he will kill him. Coyote pretends to be son of 
powerful medicine-man. Bear decides to kill him, and Coyote tells Bear to wait 
until his father sees him. This is at sunrise, when Sun peeps over hill. Coyote 
says Bear can kill him, as father is watching him. Bear thinks Coyote must be 
great man and becomes frightened. He gives Coyote many things to eat. Long 
after, Bear discovers that he has been deceived and tries to find Coyote’s home to 
kill him, but without success. Coyote moves from place to place and meets 
Mountain-Lion near lake. He tells him he is very hungry, and they go together to 
lake. Mountain-Lion climbs the tree and tells Coyoteto hide. Wild horses come 
to water, and Mountain-Lion jumps and kills young horse, which they have for 
dinner. Mountain-Lion teaches Coyote how to kill horse. Next day he does so, 
Mountain-Lion tells him not to try to kill three or four year old horse. Coyote 
leaves his friend and next day goes to lake and thinks he will try to kill largest 
horse. He jumps from tree on large horse, which throws him off and kicks him 
under jaws. Mountain-Lion comes and Coyote asks him what he is laughing 
about. Coyote is not able to move for a long time and then leaves place. He 
hears some one in persimmon tree and finds Opossum eating persimmons. He 
asks Opossum for some, but Opossum laughs at him. While pretending to fall 
from tree, limb breaks and Opossum comes to ground. Coyote gives him good 
beating and leaves him to die. Opossum fools him, and when Coyote goes away 
Opossum climbs tree again and laughs at him. 
54. COYOTE ESCAPES AN IMAGINARY FOE. 
Coyote goes hunting buffalo. He sees Turkey on top of tall tree and threatens 
to kill him if he does not get down. Turkey starts out toward prairie, as Coyote 
says he has no power to kill anything on prairie. When Turkey comes to ground 
Coyote catches up with him and kills him. While eating Turkey, Coyote looks 
around to see that no one is watching him. He thinks he sees somebody standing 
behind him, making motions as if to strike him. He starts to run, every now and 
then looking back to see if he is out of reach. He thinks he sees man right after 
him, ready to hit him, and runs with all his might. Coyote was given power at begin- 
ning of world to run without decreasing his running powers. He has run eight 
times, and ninth time he runs farther than usual. Again he looks around and 
thinks he sees man about to hit him. When running tenth time his powers are 
decreasing, and he dodges from right to left to fool man. Coyote gives out when 
