Coyote and Owl, Mescalero Apache Text :: :: University of Virginia Library

Coyote and Owl, Mescalero Apache Text

excerpted from Chiricahua Apache Texts, with Ethnological Notes

2. Coyote and Owl as told by Charles Smith

Ethnological Notes Morris Opler

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"Make [my] people for me like your [people]

(2.32)[32]

"'Aaí 'áńt'éí 'ághát'égo 'aań nndé shá'ágháͅlá. 'Áíbíká nch'iͅiͅhoͅoͅka."

goołndiná'a, Niishjaahaastiͅiͅń.

"Make [my] people for me like your [people][5]. That is why we have come to you,"

said Old Man Owl to him.

[_]

(2.32) Linguistic Notes

The first line of this passage is literally as follows: "Those / that you are so / being just so / those / people / you will make them so for me." See Ethnological note to the English translation of Mescalero text 2.5.

[_]

Ethnological Note 5
This passage is somewhat obscure. The meaning to be conveyed is that Owl is asking Coyote to make hats [or ears] for his people similar to those possessed by Coyote's people.