Coyote and Beaver Exchange Wives

COYOTE AND BEAVER EXCHANGE WIVES ³

At Amatsushe they were living; Old Coyote and Old Coyote Woman lived on one side of the hill and Old Beaver and Old Beaver Woman lived on the other side of the hill. They visited each other every night. One night it was snowing, deep, and Old Coyote said, "I shall go and invite my Brother Beaver to go hunting." He said to his wife, "I'm going to Old Brother Beaver to tell him that we shall go hunting, and make plans to exchange our wives." He went over. When he got there, he called, "Hello." Beaver answered, "Hello, come in and sit down." They sat together by the fireplace to smoke. Coyote said, "I came to tell you we are to go hunting. If we kill any rabbits we'll bring them to our wives. I shall bring mine to your wife, and you shall bring yours to mine." "All right." "You must go first." "No, you go first. This is your invitation; you invited me." "All right, I shall go early in the morning."

He said to Old Beaver Woman, "In the morning I am going hunting for you." "All right. I shall sing the song so that you will kill many rabbits." Old Beaver Woman started to fix the supper. She wanted it ready for his return. He went for the whole day. It was evening, and Old Coyote did not come home at all. Old Beaver Woman waited and waited. She started to sing her song. She was sitting near the fireplace and she sang,

Old Coyote, old Coyote, come sleep with me,
Come have intercourse with me,
Ai-oo-ai-oo (supposed to be imitative). ⁴

Old Beaver said, "What are you singing about? He won't kill anything, for he isn't any hunter." Coyote killed nothing and Beaver Woman waited and waited but Coyote never came.

Next day it was Old Beaver's turn to go hunting, He went to tell Old Coyote Woman that she must wait for him, for he was going to hunt rabbits for her. "All right," she said. He went and he killed so many that he could hardly carry them. In the morning he came back to Coyote's house and came in saying, "Old Coyote [paragraph continues]

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Woman, here are the rabbits." She took them and said, "Thank you, thank you, Old Man Beaver." They went straight into the inner room and Old Man Coyote was left by himself in the front room. He was very angry. They gave him his supper. When he had finished they went in to bed. Old Beaver Man started to have intercourse with Old Coyote Woman. Old Coyote Woman cried out, and Old Coyote called out, "Old Beaver, don't hurt my wife." Old Coyote Woman answered, "Shut up, Old Man Coyote! It is because I like it that I am crying out." When he had finished Old Beaver Man came out and went home. He said to Old Coyote, "We won't keep bad feelings against each other; this was your plan. I shall always wait for you at my house whenever you want to visit me." They went back and lived there, and they were as good neighbors as ever.

Footnotes

136:3 Informant 2. Notes, p. 236.

136:4 Much laughter.