Jicarilla Apache Texts: Tales: 26. Coyote Steals a Man's Wife

While a company was on a journey, a rock, on which a man happened to be, was raised to the sky. Coyote took the man's wife and moved away with her. The other people also moved away leaving the man on top of the rock where he lived alone. After a long time, he succeeded in getting down and started to follow the trail of those with whom he had camped. When he came to a place where the campfire had been he said to the fire poker, "How long ago did they leave?" "Long, long ago, they went away," it said. When he came again to a place where they had camped, he asked the pestle, "How long ago did they move from here?" "They moved away long, long ago," it said. He went on again until he came to the signs of another camp. "How long ago did they move away?" he asked the muller. "Not very long ago," it replied. He came where they had camped again and asked the stick on which hides are placed for dressing how long ago the people had moved. "They moved away just now," it replied. He went on and soon came to the tipi.

When he came there he found his wife, Coyote being away hunting. When Coyote came back bringing a deer the man said, "Get some small stones and put them in the fire." When the stones were hot he directed that some fat be heated also. When everything was ready, he took a stone out of the fire, wrapped it in fat, and said to Coyote, "Swallow it." Coyote swallowed it. Then he took another stone from the fire, put it in the fat and said to Coyote, "Swallow this too." He swallowed it. He prepared a third stone in the same manner and Coyote swallowed that. When Coyote had swallowed the fourth one, he said, "I thought you were doing something to me." When he had sat there for some time, he said, "Waw," and started to run. He fell dead while he was running.

"Take a bath," he told his wife. When she had bathed and came back to him they moved their camp toward the east.