Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/239

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234
THE PIMA INDIANS
[ETH. ANN. 26

him that only a grown man and not even he single handed could kill a mule deer. But he insisted, saying that he could kill it. So she made the large bow, and he went away with it. When he reached the place where the deer was and was creeping close upon it a soft whistle reached his ear. He looked around and saw Mountain Lion coming toward him. When Mountain Lion came up he said, "Wait here and I will kill the deer for you." He was as good as his word and brought the deer and also gave the boy his bow, arrows, quiver, and clothing, at the same time telling him not to let his mother know who had killed the deer, but to tell her that a man had given him the other things. The mother went with the boy and tried to find a track, but she could find nothing. After that the boy killed plenty of deer. One day he shot a deer which escaped with an arrow in him.

One day as Vulture was returning to his home near Maricopa he saw a dead deer with a strange arrow in it. He took both deer's meat and arrow home with him and showed it to the people who gathered according to their custom about him. He asked whose arrow it was, but no one could tell him. Sandy Coyote was in the company and recognized the arrow, but was too much ashamed to speak, Then Vulture said, "I think I know the arrow. I have heard of a boy living in the west who was ill treated, so that he and his mother were driven away to the mountains. I think they must have found a home somewhere in this country, for this is his arrow."

Sandy Coyote admitted that it was his son's [nephew's] arrow. "Give it to me, and I will some day go there and give it to him," he said. The next day Sandy Coyote searched for and found his brother's widow and her son. When he reached their house he went in and saw them eating a dish of meat. "Here, take your arrow," said he. "You shot a deer, which carried it away and your father's brother found it, brought it to his home, and inquired whose it was. At last they said it was yours, so I bring it to you." The boy said nothing, but took the arrow and put it away. After the boy and his mother were through eating they put away the remaining food without a word.

Sandy Coyote turned to leave, making an attempt to whistle to show his indifference to the coldness manifested toward him, but he only succeeded in shedding tears. "What is the matter with you that you cry so?" said the boy; "when I was younger and lived with you, you never gave me meat, but I did not cry."

A long time after that the woman said to her son, "I am going home to my own people, where I may get something to bring to you, and then you may go and play kints with Sandy Coyote, who killed your father; I think you are clever enough to beat him now." For many days he waited for his mother to return, and at last he went