# In the Reign of Coyote/The Creation of the World

Layout 2
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
ATER that afternoon Antonio wandered to the blacksmith's shop. Wantasson was hammering a wheel tire into shape.
"Well, young Antonio, have you minded the heat this day?" he inquired, as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve.
"Oh, no, Wantasson; we have been down by the spring where it is always cool. And Tecla told us a new story. It was about the frog that raced with the coyote and won the race by acting a lie."
"Ugh! That woman Tecla does not get her stories straight. How could a frog lie to Coyote? Coyote would know it. Why, Coyote is the most ​cunning of all the animals. And all the other animals know it. If it had n't been for Coyote there would n't be any other animals, or any world, or any you, or any me, or any Tecla to tell such false stories. Now would there, young Antonio?"
"Would n't there be anything without Coyote, Wantasson?"
"No, nothing; not even that sunflower against the fence. You know Coyote made the world, don't you?"
"Coyote?" Into Antonio's mind flashed the words he had learned in his catechism, "God made the world"; but his desire for the story brushed them aside for the moment. "Will you tell me how he made it, Wantasson?"
"Yes. Wait until I put this tire to cool; then I will rest awhile and tell it to you."
Antonio made a trumpet of his hands and shouted: "Nita, Nita, come here. Wantasson will tell us a story."
Juanita came hurrying, and soon the children were sitting in the shadow in front of the smithy, listening to Wantasson's story.
In the beginning of things it was all dark and still. There was no wind and neither was there any rain. There was no world as we see it to-day. ​All was water except for one little point of rock. On this rock lived Coyote and Eagle, and they were the only living things in the world.
Coyote lay on the rock thinking. After a long time he said to Eagle, "Sister Eagle, go to the edge of the rock and watch to see if anything happens."
In a little while Eagle called out, "O Brother Coyote, far to the north I see a tree rising out of the water."
"Very good," answered Coyote. "That tree shall be the ash, and all people shall esteem it for all time. Watch again, Sister Eagle, and see what now happens."
After a time Eagle again raised her voice. "Look to the south, Brother Coyote. There is another tree peeping up out of the water."
"Very good," answered Coyote. "That tree shall be the cedar. Throughout all ages all people shall delight in its breath. Watch again, Sister Eagle, and see what next appears."
Presently Eagle announced: "Look to the southwest, Brother Coyote. Something strange and red comes out of the water there."
"Ah!" exclaimed Coyote, "that must be land." He rose to his feet and gazed toward the southwest.
A red mass was slowly approaching the place where he stood. It floated up until it touched ​the point of rock. It was land, but it was shaking like a jellyfish. Coyote pressed it with his paws to steady it. When it had become solid and still, he looked over it.
"This is not enough land," he muttered; "we must have more."
He picked up three pieces of rock and two clumps of earth. He threw one piece of rock and then listened as it sank down, down into the depths of the water. He threw a second piece of rock and again listened as it went down, down through the water and struck the first rock lying at the bottom.
"Very good," he laughed. "Now, third rock, go and rest upon the other two."
He threw the third rock and listened as it sank down, down through the water and settled on top of the second rock. Then he threw in the two clumps of earth, one at a time, and when the last struck the water, land appeared at the surface. Then the water began to dash in great waves and to embrace the land and to withdraw from it.
"Very good," said Coyote. "Thus shall the water always act, and people for all time shall call its movements the tides." That is why we have tides to-day, because Coyote said it should be so.
​Coyote looked over the land and saw great dents on its surface. "Those do not please me," he said. "They mean sickness. Water, come up and cover over the land again."
The water swirled and hurled itself all over the land. Then Coyote blew softly, saying the while, "Land, come up again."
The land returned. It still had great dents on its surface. "What! still sickness!" exclaimed Coyote. "This must not be. Water, cover over the land again."
Again the water swirled and whirled and covered the land. Once more Coyote blew softly on it and said, "Land, come up again."
The land reappeared, but again its surface had dents upon it. "Sickness yet!" and Coyote became angry. "Sickness shall not remain upon the land. Water, cover over the land again."
The water did as it was bidden, but when Coyote called up the land again, its surface was dented as before. He ordered it under water once more; but for the fifth time it remained unchanged.
Then, indeed, Coyote's anger was great. "I will try no more," he cried. "As the land has chosen sickness, sickness it shall have for all time." That is why we have sickness to-day, because Coyote said it should be so.
​When Eagle looked over the land and saw that it was flat, she said, "There is no place for me to perch."
"That is easily changed," replied Coyote; and he rounded up some little hills.
"Huh! those are only footstools," objected Eagle. "I must have lofty cliffs for my perch."
"Well, then, Sister Eagle, make better ones to suit yourself," returned Coyote.
"Thank you, I will," answered Eagle; and she set to work. She dug her claws into the earth and scratched up some mountains. As she worked hard over the task, some of her feathers fell out and rooted in the earth. The long feathers became trees,—pines, firs, redwoods, and the other tall trees; the pinfeathers grew into manzanita and coffee berry and chaparral and similar shrubs; while the down from her breast brought forth poppies and baby-blue-eyes and buttercups and all the little flowering plants.
"Very good," said Coyote. Then he took two hairs from his body. One he threw into the water and the other upon the land. They both wriggled about and writhed themselves out into two great Serpents. The one in the water coiled itself around the land five times, so as to hold the earth together. The Land Serpent twisted itself up into ​one of those dents which Coyote could not remove and breathed out storms through its fiery nostrils.
Then Coyote pulled out two other hairs from his body and threw them upon the land. They bunched themselves into a roll and then waggled themselves into two Dogs.
After that Coyote made Grizzly, Cougar, Antelope, Beaver, and all the other animals. He made that day two of every kind of animal that is now on the earth. And everything he said that day still holds as a law. We still have earth on the top of the land and rock underneath, because Coyote threw the rocks into the water first, and then the earth. All of Coyote's laws still hold to-day.
"And if there had n't been any dents, Wantasson, would n't we have the measles and have to drink tansy tea?" A recent siege was fresh in Juanita's memory.
"But what made the dents, Wantasson?" interrupted Antonio. "What made them when Coyote did n't want them?"
"You ask too many questions, young Antonio. Look at the dents in that wheel tire. They came there and I did n't want them. I 've got to heat it again and straighten those out." And not another word could the children win from him that afternoon.