(Death Valley, California. Shoshoni)
Many people had houses at a camp where they were hunting deer and all kinds of animals. All the animals were people at that time. There were Eagle, Bullet Hawk (Kini’i), Red Tail Hawk (kwiyo’o), Crow, Coyote, and all kinds of birds and animals.
The people were hunting deer. Each night they brought home meat. When they brought it home they saw that a small kind of fly (Pakü̃'wund) 32 stole it. They went hunting again and brought home a whole, unbutchered deer. Pakü͆wund came back. He flew along, lit on the deer, and flew away with the whole thing. The
Coyote, who was chief, started to talk. He said, "We'll see about this in the morning." In the morning, all the people went south to the clay hills. They stopped there. There was a little hole in the top of the hill. The Pakü̃'wund was inside, but the people were not sure of this. They decided to smoke him out and began to gather wood. They built a fire and blew the smoke to drive it into his house. They did this all day. Coyote said, "Let me try." He blew, ran out of breath, and fell down the hill. After a while he blew again, ran out of breath, and fell down the hill. He did this again and again. After this the people began to dig. They thought they had killed Pakü̃'wund. When they had dug deep enough, they reached in to their deer meat and began to pull it out. Some of them said, "We had better leave it alone. He might not be dead. He might come and kill us." They came back from the place and left Coyote there alone. Coyote said, "I shall go in and see him myself." Coyote started to dig. He reached in to the house and found that Pakü̃'wund's children were all dead. Pakü̃'wund came out carrying a stone pestle (paku’u) in his hand. He came out to where Coyote had reached into the hole. Coyote jumped to the top of the hill, where they had started to dig. Pakü̃'wund jumped after Coyote and struck at him, but Coyote dodged and he missed. Pakü̃'wund swung again, and Coyote said, "I am not going to dodge the same way every time. I will jump the other way." Pakü̃'wund knocked Coyote down and killed him. He chased the other people. First he caught Lizards and Snakes and the others that were running slowly. He killed them. He killed each of them as he came along. The birds were faster, but Hawk went up on top of Mt. Whitney and spread his wings to rest. He was very tired. Hawk had sung his song while Pakü̃'wund was chasing him. 285:32 "Something like a small animal."
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