Sacred Texts Native American Hopi Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
The Traditions of the Hopi, by H.R. Voth, [1905], at sacred-texts.com
Alíksai! Along time ago the people were living in Wálpi. North of the village lived the Coyote. In the spring called Sun Spring (Tawába) lived the Frog. They were friends with each other. So one time the Coyote went over to visit his friend, the Frog. He ascended the mesa and passed by the village. The dogs of the village, noticing him, made a raid on him, He ran and jumped down the mesa, but was not killed. Arriving at his friend, the Frog, he first drank a great deal of water. "Thanks that I have had this drink," he said to the Frog. "I was very thirsty." "Now, let us sit down," the Frog said. ,'You sit down there at the edge of the water and dance for me," the Coyote said to the Frog. So the Frog jumped down into the deep water from where he was sitting and passed down to the bottom, but immediately came up again having his mouth wide open. He was pregnant. "Draw me out," he said to the Coyote, so the Coyote grasped him by the arms and forcibly threw him onto the ground close to the water. Hereupon the Frog burst and it was found that he was full of little tadpoles which were swarming around him. But the Frog himself died. "Oh!" the Coyote said, "why did you jump into that water there. I shall run home now."
So he started off, went up the mesa and by Sitcómovi. When the children of Sitcómovi saw him they said: "There a Coyote is running." The people living in Háno now also noticed him. "There is a Coyote! There is a Coyote! There is a Coyote!" they said, whereupon they followed him, trying to capture him. By this time a heavy rain and hail storm came up. The Coyote ran for his hole, but found that it had been filled up with water so that he could not get in. Heavy hail stones were by this time falling upon him and he was running around trying to find some shelter, but the hail stones were so heavy that he was finally killed by them.