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Ethnological Note 1
////The Mescalero coyote cycle is a
connected series of episodes describing the travels and adventures of a
trickster with attributes and characteristics, now those of a human being, now
those of an animal. At the beginning of the cycle, Coyote speaks as humans do,
and exhibits, except for bodily form, all the traits of humankind. Throughout
the narrative it is impossible to determine whether Coyote, to the Apache mind,
appears in the guise of an animal or of a man. In the concluding episode the
point is plainly marked where Coyote loses his power of speech and assumes the
bodily shape and mental qualities of the beast.
////Again, it is difficult to decide whether the pranks and
experiences we follow in the story are those of one and the same coyote.
Frequently, at the close of one episode, Coyote will pay with his life for some
escapade. Yet the next episode will resume in the usual way, "Coyote was going
along ..." When the informant is questioned concerning this apparent
resurrection and the number of coyotes involved in his tale, he most often
answers without too much interest or anxiety over the point, "I guess it must
have been some other coyote."
////The truth of
the matter is that these are academic questions. To the Mescalero Apache, Coyote
is a type, a character. Whether he is human in form at the beginning of the
cycle is an unimportant problem. What is certain, and far more important, is
that Coyote as a character reveals a remarkable self-portrait of the Apache, and
a shrewd and powerful satire of his culture and of human foibles. To this we
shall turn in a moment.
////I have said something
concerning the continuity of the cycle and the definite order of the episodes.
This is an aspect of the coyote stories not fully appreciated, a circumstance
which has resulted in violence to the rich esthetic and ethnological content of
the cycle. An investigator who asks for coyote stories without first determining
their nature and their significance in the culture, obtains little more than
outlines of widely separated episodes selected for their plot value. Since, in
the full body of the myth, such plots often run through more than one episode
and there is much interweaving of the whole cycle by reference to what has gone
before, the procedure of isolating separate coyote stories ends in truncating
and mutilating them. For instance, in one of the last episodes of the cycle,
Coyote meets Beetle, and, after making some caustic references to a previous
encounter of the two, eats him. The allusion is not clear unless one is familiar
with the details of an earlier episode in which Beetle outwitted Coyote and
escaped from him.
////It must not be supposed
that all Mescalero Apache tell the coyote cycle in exactly the same way or even
relate the episodes in the same order. There is considerable individual
variation, and I have listened to animated arguments between various Apache
concerning the proper manner in which the cycle should be told. In aboriginal
times, the Mescalero lived in camp clusters of related families, and ordinarily
each of these harbored some very old person whose age and interests led him to
take the initiative in communicating the folk-lore to the youngsters. The
children of that group were likely to become most familiar with his version of
the tales and to recount them in that form when they grew up. When I was
recording the cycle, my informant might interrupt his discourse to say, "Now I
learned my story from Old Man T. Others told it differently. One man put in a
different story at this place." Then would follow a variant or an additional
episode with the name of the old storyteller whose narrative included it.
////A great deal of the interest in folk-lore in
general, and very certainly it is true of these trickster tales, has centered
around the determination of the geographical distribution of the elements or
motifs found in the stories. Without gainsaying the value of such labors, I
believe that there is still another approach to native tales and legends which
offers tempting opportunities to study the psychology and culture of preliterate
groups. This approach may best be thrown into relief, perhaps, by a brief
discussion of the place and function of the coyote cycle in Mescalero culture.
////In the first place, the cycle is appreciated
as a good story. It can be told in winter only, when the snakes are not around,
and at night. The coyote story therefore helps to pass many a long winter
evening. To tell this cycle is a test of dramatic ability and virtuosity; it
requires the successful imitation of the many animals and birds which are
mentioned in the course of the episodes, and can be made more lively and
persuasive by apt pantomime. Those who do not feel able to tell the tale with
proper effect nevertheless thoroughly enjoy the performance of others.
////Quite as important as its entertaining
qualities is the didactic value of the coyote cycle. Coyote, as represented in
these episodes, is given to every reprehensible vice and excess. He indulges in
falsehood, theft, gluttony, impiety, adultery, and incest. Almost always these
acts end in embarrassment and hardship for him. As the account of these misdeeds
unfolds, the raconteur, especially if there are many children present, does not
fail to expand on the difference between Coyote's lapse and Apache standards,
and to point the inevitable moral. At least once each winter the children of a
camp cluster were brought together, and they listened for an entire night to
legends. The coyote cycle, with all possible moralistic flourishes, was always
told at this time. A child whose interest lagged or who fell asleep during this
recital was reminded of his duties by a sharp tap on the head.
////Psychologically there is no more interesting phase of
this coyote cycle than the extent to which it operates as a cultural safety
valve. In a culture where practically all the customs, even those concerned with
the daily round of life, are validated by the blessing and approval of some
supernatural, any deviation from, freedom with, or levity regarding the mores,
smacks of profanity. Yet these Apache are not without a sense of humor and
proportion concerning their folk-ways, as I have had many occasions to learn.
The Apache cannot laugh at his fellow man or even openly at himself for honoring
tradition at all times in place of common sense. But he can and does set up a
straw man, Coyote, at whom he has reserved the right to jibe, and with Coyote as
buffer, many of the Apache usages and beliefs are treated slyly and not without
kindly lampooning.
////Likewise there are certain
tabooed subjects which seldom get an airing except through the good offices of
Coyote. To talk ill of another is to open oneself to the charge of having a
"witchmouth". The Apache lays a great emphasis upon never talking of evil lest
it occur. An Apache may not even look at his mother-in-law; to talk of intimacy
between a man and his wife's mother would be an unpardonable scandal. Yet we
find an episode in the coyote cycle where Coyote tricks his mother-in-law and
has intercourse with her, and tales of incest and sexual perversion in which
Coyote is involved. These are called "funny stories" and elicit laughter and
appreciation in proportion to the amount of repression exercised over the
subject matter in daily life.
////Coyote
functions in still another role among the Mescalero. Despite the kindly interest
of the supernaturals, the beneficial influence of ceremony and tradition, and
the virtuous professions of most individuals, the Apache is faced with a world
in which sorcery, deceit, ingratitude, and misconduct are not uncommon
occurences. How shall he account for this?
////The particular scapegoat he has selected is his mythical
counterpart, Coyote; the misadventures of Coyote are the Apache original sin.
"Coyote did it first. We follow in Coyote's footsteps." These are the typical
explanations of the defects and imperfections in human nature. Coyote blazed a
trail which men were bound to follow, and with mellow resignation the frailties
of the flesh are dismissed as a consequence of Coyote's initial errors.
////One more important function distinguishes the
Mescalero coyote cycle. A number of other Southern Athabaskan speaking tribes
tell an emergence legend in the course of which reference is made to the
creation and to the origins of the major ceremonies. The Mescalero have no such
story. Instead they have utilized the coyote cycle to introduce these elements.
When Coyote has run the gamut of his adventures, the culture hero takes
possession of him, and, speaking through him, begins the creation of the living
things of the earth. Later the culture hero himself appears, transforms Coyote
into the brute he is to be henceforth, and continues the task of creation.
Finally White Painted Woman, mother of the culture hero, makes her appearance,
aids in the creation, and gives rules and advice for the ordering of human life.
Then these supernaturals disappear, and the world stage is set for the human
occupation to follow.
////That portion of the
coyote cycle which Dr. Hoijer has recorded in text is a continuous section
beginning with the sixty eighth episode and carrying the story to the end. I was
engaged in ethnological research upon the Mescalero Indian Reservation when Dr.
Hoijer came to gather linguistic material. I was just then recording the coyote
cycle from a very competent English-speaking Mescalero man whom we thought would
prove an excellent informant for linguistic purposes. So it was decided that Dr.
Hoijer should carry on the account from where I stopped, in part because we
thought it would be interesting to learn whether the episodes which I had been
taking in English were faithful to the diction and spirit of the original, in
part because it offered an opportunity to obtain an uninterrupted body of useful
texts.
////The time at which the incidents
pictured in this cycle are supposed to have occurred is placed back "at the
beginning" when animals and birds spoke and acted as men do now. First there was
total darkness upon the earth, and the birds, who wanted light, opposed the
four-footed creatures and monsters in a moccasin game to determine whether there
should be day. In this game Coyote displays his characteristics of slyness and
vacillation; he finds reason to change to the side which has a decided advantage
in score. The birds finally vanquish and pursue their larger foes, the
four-footed creatures and monsters scatter over the earth. Coyote leaves the
scene of the game, and the tale of his wanderings, the coyote cycle, begins.