Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians

Morris Edward Opler, David H. French

• Publisher: Borodino Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781787205697
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

"We are dealing here with a living literature, " wrote Morris Edward Opler in his preface to Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. First published in 1942, this is another classic study by the author of Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians.Opler conducted field work among the Chiricahuas in the American Southwest, as he had earlier among the Jicarillas. The result is a definitive collection of their myths. They range from an account of the world destroyed by water to descriptions of puberty rites and wonderful contests. The exploits of culture heroes involve the slaying of monsters and the assistance of Coyote. A large part of the book is devoted to the irrepressible Coyote, whose antics make cautionary tales for the young, tales that also allow harmless expression of the taboo. Other striking stories present supernatural beings and "foolish people."

III. THE COYOTE CYCLE AND OTHER ANIMAL, BIRD, AND INSECT TALES

A. THE ORIGIN OF DEATH

1. Coyote Causes Death

Raven said that he didn’t want death in this world. “I’ll throw a stick in the river. If it sinks there is going to be death, but if not, everything will be all right,” he said.

Then Coyote came along and said, “I’ll throw a rock in the river. If it sinks people will die. If it doesn’t sink there will be no death.”

Raven threw the sticks and they floated off. Then Coyote threw the rock and it sank.{58} After that people began to die off.

B. THE COYOTE CYCLE

1. Coyote’s Enemy Sends Him Away on Rising Rock and Steals His Wife{59}

After the gambling for day or night, the coyotes moved out and traveled to the place where the rising rock was.{60} The coyotes were camping right around close to this rock. And in that camp there was one coyote who had a pretty wife and a little boy.

Every now and then these coyotes would go to the rock. One would say to another, “You get on that rock over there.” And then some of those coyotes would say, “Rock, rise up with that man.” Then the rock would start to go up, far up toward the sky. Then they would tell that rock, “Come down with that man again.” So that rock would bring that fellow down again.

One time this coyote who had the pretty wife happened to be among the crowd. Another coyote who had it in for him was standing in the crowd also. And he told the coyote who had the pretty wife to get on that rock. Coyote got on the rock. And the fellow who had it in for him said, “Rock, go up with him.” And it began to go up with him. Then at the command, “Come down again, Rock,” it came down with the coyote. And that coyote with the pretty wife said, “This is a very fine thing! I’d like to go up again.” So he was sent up and down until the fourth time. Then his enemy told the rock to get up out of sight and to stay that way. The rock did so. And all the camp was going on a journey, moving. And Coyote was up there out of sight and couldn’t get down.

Every day the coyotes were moving farther away.

As soon as that coyote got out of sight on the rock, the other coyote got his wife. He married that woman and abused that little boy. Every time he brought meat he took the muscle meat, the toughest part that isn’t worth eating, and he threw it to the boy. He would say, “Eat that, you! Your father went up on a rock, he went up in the sky.” And he would say, “Your father is dead. Your father went up on a rock into the sky.” He was mean to him. He told him that every day.

Now we go back to the boy’s father. He was up there on the rock. And he saw some bats playing around above him. Coyote called to them, “Hey, you folks up there playing with your children, come down here! I want to see you.”

And one of the children said, “Wait! Someone’s saying something down below.”

And Coyote yelled the same thing again.

Then they heard him and went down there. And he began to beg help from those bats. He said to one of them, “Old man, won’t you please carry me down?”

The bat told him, “We might fall.”

But he kept begging him, “Carry me down.”

So the bat went away and got a basket. And it was fastened across his head and hanging on his back. He came back. The first thing the coyote did was to look over this basket and the strings to see how strong it was. The bat had a thin string, just a hair, as a rope for that basket.{61}

Coyote said, “What kind of string is that? That’s going to break with me; then I will fall.”

The bat answered, “This will never break.”

Coyote said, “All right, let’s see you put four big rocks in it and jump around with it here.” So Bat put four rocks in and did what the coyote asked him to do. It didn’t break. Then Coyote said, “That will be all right.”

The bat, before Coyote got in the basket, told him, “I’m going to tell you just one thing you must do: shut your eyes after you get in the basket and keep them shut all the way down. If you ever open your eyes, we’re going to fall and break our legs.

Coyote said, “All right.”

So they started going down to the ground. When the bat started he said, “Rock, stick, stick, stick.” He just kept saying that all the way down until he was just a little way from the ground.

Then Coyote began to yell, “I just have to look!”

Bat said, “Don’t you do it, for then we’re going to fall.”

Coyote insisted, “I just have to open my eyes.”

Bat begged him not to. But the coyote looked and they fell, and the bat hurt his shin. But they were down, and the coyote went on his journey.

2. Coyote Seeks His Family and Kills His Rival

Coyote started out just as fast as he could to follow the people who were traveling, his people. They were several days ahead of him.

He got back where his camp was before he went up on that rock. He asked the fire poker, “How many days ago did they leave?”

It said, “Ten days ago.”

He went to the next place where they had stopped. He asked the ashes how long ago they had left. Ashes told him they had gone nine days before. He went to the next place and he asked an old brush bed how many days ago they had been there, and it told him eight days. He went to the next place and asked the horse ribs used for tanning hides{62} how many days ago they had been there, and he was told seven days. At the next place he asked the posts{63} used for tanning the hides, and they said six days. At the next place he found a bone that had been chewed on and thrown away there. He asked the same question and was told five days. At the next place he asked a rock, and it told him they had left four days ago. At the next place he asked a wickiup pole,{64} and he was told they had left three days before. And all these things told him the direction in which his people had gone. At the next place he asked a tree, and it told him the people had left two days before. He went to the next place where they had camped and asked a little bunch of grass. He asked everything that would talk to him and show him the way. The grass told him they had left one day before.

Next he asked a path. “You’re almost to them,” it told him. “Just follow me.” And he found them.

He went to one camp and asked where his wife was camping. At that camp those people told him how his son was treated and who had his wife. And so he went to his wife’s camp. No one, not even his wife, knew when he got there. And he went into an arrow quiver which was hanging inside. The man who had taken his wife was out after some meat.

After a while there came that man with some meat. And the woman’s husband was in the quiver. His wife was cooking meat for the other coyote, and when his meat was cooked, he got the very best part of it. He threw the muscle, the part you could hardly chew, to Coyote’s son and told that little fellow, “Eat that. Your father is dead, and a rock went up in the sky with him.”

Just about that time Coyote was trying to get out of the quiver. The other coyote looked up and said, “What’s the matter with the wind, shaking my quiver?”

Then the first coyote jumped out and took the bow and arrows out. He pulled the bow at once and shot that other coyote with several arrows and killed him right there.

And he told his wife, “Drag that coyote out! He stinks and is dirty! Go on and carry him out. Take him to that hollow over there.”

While she was dragging the coyote out, she was crying. She didn’t cry aloud so that her husband would know anything about it. But it showed in her eyes that she had been crying when she got back to camp.

Then her husband looked at her in a suspicious way and got after her. He said, “It looks as if you’ve been crying over there. Have you been crying?”

She said, “No, I was coming against the wind and something went in my eyes.”{65}

3. Coyote Marries His Own Daughter

Coyote had a family; I don’t know how many children he did have. The oldest daughter was a very pretty girl. Coyote and his family were in a camp in one place, and he was figuring out how he was going to get a chance to marry his own daughter. Finally he had it planned, the way he was going to work it.

He told his wife and children, “I’ve got lung trouble.” But he wasn’t sick. Nothing was wrong with him. He said, “This is a very contagious disease, and I don’t want to spread it among my children. You see that tree over there. Yon make me a bed up in that tree and feed me, and I’ll stay there.”

So right away his wife got busy and made that bed up th...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• I. WHEN THE EARTH WAS NEW
• II. THE CONTEST FOR DAYLIGHT
• III. THE COYOTE CYCLE AND OTHER ANIMAL, BIRD, AND INSECT TALES
• IV. STORIES OF SUPERNATURAL BEINGS AND ENCOUNTERS WITH SUPERNATURALS
• V. STORIES OF FOOLISH PEOPLE, UNFAITHFULNESS, AND PERVERSION
• VI. MISCELLANEOUS
• APPENDIX - COMPARATIVE NOTES ON CHIRICAHUA APACHE MYTHOLOGY
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER