76. THE BADGER, THE COYOTE, AND THE KÓHONINO MAIDEN. 1

The Traditions of the Hopi, by H.R. Voth, [1905], at sacred-texts.com

Halíksai! In Oraíbi the people were living. At Badger Gulch (Honáncika), lived the Badger. His friend the Coyote lived at Íshmovala. The two were great friends. One time they were hunting together. They were hunting and had gotten as far as Mowáhpi, quite a distance west of Apóhnivi, but they had not killed anything. Some time before the Coyote had been hunting alone and had found the place where a Kóhonino maiden had died some time previously. So he said to his friend the Badger: "Let us go and hunt the place where the Kóhonino maiden has died, and let us revive her. You are a doctor and will certainly know how to do it." So they went to the place and there sure enough found the bones.

They gathered the bones and placed them on a pile. The Badger had on a black kilt (kokómvitkuna). This he spread over the bones. The Coyote was anxious to see what his friend would do, but his friend said he should not stay there, but he should go away, he should hide somewhere. Then the Badger was thinking that the maiden would have to have some flesh and some color, so he sent the Coyote westward to Cöhö'h-toika to get some dry grass. When the Coyote brought this they put some of the grass with the bones. He then sent the Coyote to a place west of Mowáhpi to get some red paint (cûta). Of this he also put a small quantity under the black kilt, He then sent the Coyote to a spring called Hidden Spring (Nauyva), to get some water from there. When he returned they poured a little of the water in a bowl and wet the paint with it.

The Badger now told the Coyote to go away. He went away but soon sneaked back again, crawling towards the place where his friend was working over the bones. The Badger was angry and said to him that if he did not go away, and if he saw that, the maiden would never revive. Hereupon he drove the Coyote off, and the latter went away quite a distance this time. Then the Badger sang as follows:

Hatataplocho, lochoooo, Hatataplocho, lochoooo, Payapim, Kohninapim, Nowacha' pim waya! waya! Momoka, momoka âi, âi.

Narrator could not give the meaning of these words.

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Hereupon he poured some of the paint over the bones and grass. He then repeated the song several times, always pouring some of the paint over the material as he concluded the song. All at once the bones began to move under the cover. He waited a little and then removed the cover and, behold I the maiden was alive. She sat up and looked around. "Why do you want me?" she asked. "It is not I that wanted you," he said, "but the Coyote," whereupon he called the latter. The Coyote came running and the Badger said to him: "You wanted me to revive this one, now she is alive again," "Yes," he said, "it was I who wanted it that way." This way they talked together and then they said they wanted to go home, and told the maiden so. She was willing to go with them.

As they went home the Coyote coveted the mána and wanted to marry her, but the Badger was not willing. He said: "That is not the purpose. for which we brought her to life. She was to be our clan sister (tû'mci). We wanted her to build the fire for us." They finally came to Big Hill (Wopáchomo), and the Coyote was anxious to have the maiden. He rushed upon her and bit her in the calf of her leg. The Badger was very angry, saying: "Why did you do that? That is not the reason why we brought her. You are bad." As he was saying this the maiden fell down and died again.

They were thinking where they should bury her. So the Badger took the body on his back and took it south-west. The Coyote followed him a short distance then returned to the place where she had died, but he soon again followed, overtaking the Badger. "Why did you follow me?" asked the Badger. "One does not follow the dead." In a little while the Coyote again ran back to the place where the maiden had died. "When he comes back again," the Badger said to himself: ''I shall not say anything to him. But how shall I kill him? He is bad." In a little while he put down the corpse and began to dig a grave. As he was working at it the Coyote returned. So they here buried the maiden and then returned home.

But it was evening when they came to the Coyote's house. Here they both remained over night. In the morning the Badger went to his home, inviting his friend, however, to come and visit him the next day. As he went home he was thinking how he should kill the Coyote. As he went along he killed some bull-snakes (lölö'okongs). When he arrived at his home he had killed four of them. On his fireplace was standing a pot. He cut the lölö'okongs up into short pieces and put the pieces into the drying pot. He stirred then, over a slow fire until they were thoroughly dry. The lölö'okongs were fat. When he was done with this he put on another pot and

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made some hurúshuki. As he was done with that his friend came..

"My friend," the Coyote said. "Ha!" the Badger replied. "Are you in?" the Coyote asked. "Yes," he said, "come in, come in." So the Coyote went in and they commenced to eat right away. When they were through eating the Coyote asked the Badger: "What have you here that tasted so good?" "Yes," said the Badger, who had a knife in his hand. "I did not know what to set before you, and so I cut open my abdomen, took my entrails out and roasted them for you, and before I was through, my abdomen was closed up again." The Coyote would not believe him. "Certainly you did not roast that, yet you are saying it," the Coyote said. "Yes," the Badger replied, "I roasted that. You see my abdomen is not quite well yet," whereupon he showed it to him, having made a little scratch on it beforehand. And then the Coyote believed him. "I am going to do that, too," the Coyote said. "You come and visit me tomorrow morning. But I have no knife and roasting pot; you have a knife and a pot, let me have them." "Very well," the Badger said, you take them along." He gave him the knife and the pot, and then the Coyote left the kiva and ran home. After he had left the Badger said: "Get out, old man, you will certainly die, believing me that way."

When the Coyote got home he went to sleep. In the morning he put the pot on the fire and then leaned against the wall. He took the knife and opened his abdomen a little, but it hurt him, and he turned away. "Oh my! I shall not die," he thought, and then made a larger cut. He then laid down the knife and took hold of the edge with his four paws and tore a big opening in his abdomen, whereupon the entrails dropped out. He moaned very much when he opened his abdomen, saving "Aná-na-na-na-na-na-." He then took hold of one of the larger intestines and thereupon fell over and died.

When the Badger came over he looked in and said, "Friend (Kwach)," but receiving no answer he entered. He found that his friend was dead. He said: "Of course, you died here, being deceived that way. Of course, I did not really open my abdomen. You have been deceived." Hereupon he took the fat from the Coyote, and returned to his house. Close to his house was an ant hill. He spread this fat over the ant hill, whereupon the ants moved away, and that is the reason why the ants do not remain when coyote fat is placed where they are, and that is also the reason why coyote fat is used for ant bites.

Footnotes

207:1 Told by Lománömtiwa (Oraíbi).