He saw that the house was divided into two parts before him; even the fireplace was divided, and no one said a word to indicate which side he should enter. For a long time he was silent. Then he said: "What kind of people are you that you do not speak to me? It is the custom to ask a stranger 'Where are you from?' or, if they come at night, 'Where were you when the sun went down?' Why are you not thus courteous? Am I a thief, a murderer, or a ghost that makes you speechless with fright?"
After the stranger had spoken, Mountain Lion got up, took his tobacco, rolled and lighted a cigarette.
"Ha, you are here also," said the stranger, "and have said nothing to me." But Mountain Lion put away his tobacco without offering any to the other, who exclaimed: "Do you think I have no tobacco? Don't you see that I am caught here in the door because I have so much tobacco in my bundle that it will not go through?" Then Yellow Coyote invited him to come to the south side of the house.
For many nights they played different games, but Yellow Coyote continued to lose at all of them. At last he told Finish that he had hit upon a game that he believed they could win with. So he called Tcoʼkokoi, or Black Beetle, and told him that they wanted him to run a football race with Vapʼkai-ĭki, Duck. When Black Beetle heard that the south division of the house wanted him to run a race he said, "While you people were planning for this I had a dream. I dreamed that I had in my right hand a green ball, which I threw or kicked with my right foot toward the east. After I had kicked four times I reached the place where the sun comes up. When I turned around the darkness came behind me, but I kicked the ball four times and reached the place where the sun goes down, and the darkness did not catch me."
All his party were glad to hear of Black Beetle's dream, saying that it was a sign of good luck. So the next day Yellow Coyote said to his brother, "We will draw a line here for the starting place. If your man kicks his ball back over this line first he will be the winner and if my man kicks his ball first over the line I shall be the winner." They agreed that whoever won should have the privilege of marrying at the end of four days.
Duck and Black Beetle started off and ran for miles, and after a long time the latter came in, kicking his ball first over the line, thus winning the race for Yellow Coyote. At the end of the four days Sandy Coyote acted in bad faith, for he went away in the evening and toward midnight returned with a wife whom he had taken among the Va-aki Â-âp, who lived northwest of the Coyote home. Her name was Itany Ofʼĭ.[1] Yellow Coyote said, "I am going to build a fire and see what kind of looking woman my elder brother's wife is."
- ↑ Itany is the name given a saltbush, Atriplex sp., the seed of which is eaten by the Pimas.
