33. Coyote Loses His Eyes

Coyote took out his eyes and threw them up. They fell back again. Some time after, when he was walking through the woods and happened to be under a tree, he did this. His eyes caught on the tree. He went away again in this direction. Someone made eyes for him out of yellow pitch and cautioned him, "You must not lie in the sunshine." Coyote, however, did lie in the sunshine and the pitch when it became warm ran down on each side of his nose. That is the reason Coyote has marks from each eye down his checks. The eyes that Coyote threw into the tree became plums. ²

Footnotes

229:1 Matthews' account obtained from the Navajo has considerable detail, pp. 89-91. This story has wide distribution: Teit, (b), p. 632; Russell, (b), p. 215; Wissler and Duvall, p. 29; Kroeber, (a), p. 70; (b), p. 168; and p. 50; Mason. p.314; Stevenson, p. 153.

229:2 This sentence was obtained at the end of text 35, out of its connection.