Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

Coyote Marries his Own Daughter, Chiricahua Apache Text

excerpted from Chiricahua Apache Texts, with Ethnological Notes

collapse section

18. Coyote Marries his Own Daughter as told by Sam Kenoi

18.1.

Coyote lived with his many children.

18.2.

Then he pretended to be sick.

18.3.

Then his wife made a bed for him there.

18.4.

Then he lay down up there.

18.5.

Then he spoke thus to his wife:

18.6.

He had sexual desires toward his daughter. So he spoke thus.

18.7.

They knew him by a large wart that was on the side of his head.

18.8.

Then, every day, his wife swept [the ground] under him.

18.9.

Then, the next day, his wife was coming again to the place under him.

18.10.

"The worms have fallen. We shall go right away. 'When the worms fall, you will go.' he said to us."

18.11.

Sadly, they started off.

18.12.

Then he spoke thus to his mother:

18.13.

Then his mother spoke thus to him:

18.14.

In spite of that, the little one spoke thus to his mother:

18.15.

But then his mother stopped him.

18.16.

Then, at a place still further on, that Coyote himself, carrying four prairie dogs, met his children.

18.17.

Then that Coyote, when he met his children, spoke thus to them:

18.18.

Then his wife spoke thus to him:

18.19.

Then, though it was indeed him, he spoke thus to her:

18.20.

Then she spoke thus to him:

18.21.

Then he spoke thus to her:

18.22.

Then she gave him her oldest daughter.

18.23.

"My wife, search for lice on me."

18.24.

Putting his head in her lap, he lay on his side as she searched for lice on him.

18.25.

Then he spoke thus to her:

18.26.

Then that girl thought thus.

18.27.

And a big wart was on the side of his head!

18.28.

She went back to him with her mother.

18.29.

[The mother] picked up a big stone.

Linguistic Notes by Harry Hoijer

Ethnological Notes Morris Opler

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

Ethnological Notes Morris Opler

[_]

Ethnological Note 1
"To be gone" is the accepted euphemism for death.

[_]

Ethnological Note 2
That is, the members of Coyote's family knew that he had a large wart on the side of his head. The informant did not know this tale very well, and, in the first telling of it, omitted this detail which is important later [see paragraph 23, et. seq.]. He afterward made this insertion which is, therefore, curiously out of context.

[_]

Ethnological Note 3
Mention of the dead is forbidden by the Apache, especially in the presence of relatives of the deceased.

[_]

Ethnological Note 4
Residence among the Chiricahua is matrilocal. The girl's mother, with the help of other female relatives, constructs a wickiup for the newly married couple not very far distant from her own home. House building is the work of the women.