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Thompson - Coyote and swa´won
Coyote was traveling over the country, and came near to old man swa´won's house. His clothes were so torn that he was almost naked, and he had no ornaments. Knowing that ´swa'won had a very fine robe of feathers, he thought he would try and gain possession of it. Plucking some alkali grass (pese´nulten), he cut the stems in small pieces and transformed them into dentalia. Gathering a lot of rose berries, he changed them to beads, and then going to a moqmo´qaselp bush, he plucked the leaves there from, and, placing them in water with mud and stones, he stirred them up, and they became shells (sLaq). Now he threaded all on a long string, and went to swa´won's house, wearing them on his body. The old man admired Coyote's ornaments very much, and declared he had never seen such beautiful necklaces. Coyote said to him, "If you give me your feather robe. I will give you all my ornaments." swa´won agreed, and they exchanged, Coyote keeping only a very few real dentalia, which he had in his hair. Before Coyote had gone very far, he wished to see the feathers of his robe fly, in order to admire them. As it was very calm, he asked the Wind to blow, and it blew gently. This did not satisfy him, so he asked for more wind, and a breeze came. Now Coyote admired himself very much, but still he was not satisfied, and said, "I want more wind." Then a whirlwind came and seized him turning him round and round, and over and over. It carried him up to the top of a mountain, where it threw him repeatedly on the ground, and rolled him ever nearer to the edge of a high cliff. Now Coyote cried for help, and, seeing no one near, he addressed the Horse-Tail! I will pay you dentalia." The Horse-Tail stopped the wind, and Coyote paid him the dentalia which he had in his hair. The Horse-Tail stuck them on his body at regular distances, and this is why it is white at every joint now. The whirl-wind took away the feather robe, and Coyote saw it no more. Meanwhile swa'won went to bed highly pleased with the bargain he had made. On the next morning when he woke up, the dentalia had changed back to alcali-grass, the shells to moqmo'qaselp leaves, and the beads to rose berries.
Taken from: Myths and Tales from Nicola Valley and Fraser River collected by James Alexander Teit, 1911
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