Having finished his work on earth, and having put all things to rights, the time came that the Coyote should meet the Old Man. He was travelling eastward through the country somewhere to the southeast of the Columbia, when he met the Old Man, but he did not know that he was the "Great Chief" or "Mystery," because he did not appear to be different from any other old man. The Coyote thought, "This old man does not know who I am. I will astonish him. He knows nothing of my great powers, and of the wonders I have performed." After saluting each other, the Old Man derided the Coyote as a person possessed of small powers; consequently the latter felt annoyed, and began to boast of the many wonders he had performed. The Old Man then said, "If you have performed all those feats, you must indeed be the Coyote, of whom all the people speak, for he alone can do such things." The Coyote said, "Yes, I am he. Why do you doubt my powers?" Whereupon the Old Man answered, "If you are he, and so powerful as you say, remove that river and make it run yonder." This the Coyote did. The Old Man said, "Bring it back;" and the Coyote did so. The Old Man then said, "Place that high mountain on the plain." The Coyote did so, and the Old Man then said, "Replace it where it was;" but this the Coyote could not do, because the Old Man, being the greater in magic of the two willed otherwise. The Old Man then asked the Coyote why he could not replace it, and the latter answered, "I do not know. I suppose because you are greater than I in magic, and therefore make my effort fruitless." The Old Man then made the mountain go back tom its place. Then to test the Old Man's power, the Coyote said, "Remove that river." The Old man did so. The Coyote then told him to remove a mountain, and he did so, returning each of them to its original position. The Coyote then said, "You must be the Old Man, or the Great Chief. I was looking for you." The Old Man answered: "I am the Great Chief. Now you have been a long time on earth; and since the world, mostly through your instrumentality, has been put to rights, you have nothing more to do. Soon I am going to leave the earth. You will not return again until I myself do so. You shall them accompany me, and we will change things in the world, and bring back the dead to the land of the living." The Old Man then made a large house out of ice in a far-away part of the world, and put the Coyote therein to await his coming. He placed inside the house a large log, which should burn forever, and be a fire for the Coyote. No one knows where the Coyote's house is. He will come again at some future time, and will bring back the Indian dead from the land of the shades.

Last updated 31 August 1998. This digital collection was produced under contract to the SchoolNet Digital Collections Program, Industry Canada. Produced by Schoolnet Digital Collections Team.