Chronicles of Camp Wright, Part III; Chapters I-IV [pp. 259-271]

260 Ch ron fries of CamA W?'ighl. [Sept.
and four of them, two men and two women, twinkle in his eyes, as if he knew all about
were killed by the whites; since then none it, and turned slowly away, browsing as he
of the tribe have dared to return thither. went; while Coyote, almost broken-hearted
Like the majority of the Northern Califor- at the wonderful mishap, went hack sorrownia Indians the Tom-kies have a story of the ing to his lodge, and believing that it was a
Creation that sounds singularly ft~miliar, they punishment and a warning from Mi-ke-lah,
believe that in the beginning the waters he became conscience-stricken, refused all
covered the earth and that the whole was food, and did nothing but weep all the
enveloped in darkness and gloom until Mi- time.
ke4ah, the Maker, appeared and lighted all At last, one day he went back to the
with his presence and his work. The habi- spot where he had seen the deer, and caretation being prepared, Mi-ke4ah made all fully gathered together all the pieces of the
the Indians, the Tom-kies first; and before bow and arrows and hrought them to his
re-ascending to his home near the sun, he lodge, where be placed them side by side
selected the wisest from among them, whom on the ground in their proper places; and with
he named Coy6te, the chief, and to whom this model before him, he began slowly to
he imparted much of his knowledge to be manufacture another bow and other arrows,
disseminated among the others for their good. at the same time A~aking all sorts of good
Among the many gifts left in the hands of resolutions to retorm his conduct toward
Coyote for that purpose, was a bow with a the others and tell them all that Mi-ke4ah
quiver full of arrows, with directions to had said, if he succeeded. Finally, the
teach the others how to make and use them work was completed to his satisfaction, and
so that they could hunt the game and have he went out and hung the bow on the limbs
plenty to eat. But when Coyote, by con- of a tree for the sinews of which the string
stant practice, had become very expert in was made to dry in the sun, and for four
their use, he kept the knowledge to himself days and four nights he lay underneath it,
instead of teaching the others, and he made watching it all the time.
them carry home all the game he killed, so At the end of the fourth day he took it
that, in one sense, they all had to depend down and tried it, and found it to be a sucon him. So in every way, seeing himself cess. He became so elated that he forgot
the arcanum," as it were, of human knowi- all his good resolutions.
edge, he became very proud, and ambitious "When the I)evil was sick, the Devil a monk would
of always excelling the others by retaining be;
for himself only the knowledge which Mi- When the Devil was well, the devil a monk was he,"
ke-lah had given him for the good of all; and like his great prototype, Coyote became
and whenever questions were asked by the fully as bad as he was before, if not worse.
others for their inlormation he even gave But one day Mi-ke4ah came down among
the wrong answers or explanations, and by the Tom-kies again, and he gathered them
and by through his instrumentality a great all around him, with Coyote, very much
many who had at first been very good, like frightened, in the middle; and he told them
all things Mi-ke-lab had made, became very that Coyote by his wicked ambition had
bad without knowing it. become a cka-du-wel, a devil, who had per One day Coyote, while hunting, saw a verted all the good words that had been enlarge red deer before him, and as he was trusted to him alone for the good of all,
fixing the arrow on the bow to slay the deer and that, by so doing, he had made bad
the bow flew into pieces and all the arrows that which Mi-ke4ah had created good;
with it, and the deer looked at him with a that a~ a punishment for his wickedness he