Coyote and the Porcupine - Navajo

When Coyote came trotting through the forest one morning, just at
dawn, he
saw something that made him very curious. Because he always was
curious as
well as hungry he stopped enjoying the keen fresh air and the smell
of sage
and cedar and he trotted over to find what his old friend.
Porcupine, was
doing.

"Good morning, Porcupine," he said. "I see you have built a nice
bark shed
for yourself. That is very smart. You like bark to eat. Now all you
have to
do is tear off a part of your shed and eat it."

"Come in," Porcupine invited. "As you can see, I have nothing to eat
in my
house but since I know you always are hungry, I'll bring you a piece
of bark
right now."

Coyote thought that was very funny. He did not like bark. Porcupine
was
teasing him, he decided.

Porcupine waddled outside. He took one of the slabs of bark from his
wall,
brought it inside and sat down near the fire that was burning in the
middle
of the shed. Then he pulled a quill from his back and struck the
sharp point
of it on his nose.

Blood began to come in a red stream which Porcupine caught on the
cupped
piece of bark. When it was well covered with his blood, he laid the
bark
gently on a bed of coals and sat back.

"Why did you do that. Cousin?" Coyote asked. "I don't like to see
you shed
your own blood so carelessly. Are you going to cook your own blood
and eat
it?"

"Be patient," Porcupine said, leaning back and crossing his
legs. "You are
about to see something you never have seen before."

Coyote was impatient to find out.

"What?" he said. "What are you going to do? Do you have some magic I
know
nothing about?"

Porcupine just closed his eyes and seemed to be having a quick nap.

Coyote looked at the bark on the coals. It no longer was bark. It
was a
delicious roast of ribs, cooking to a nice brown. It smelled good.

Porcupine awoke just as the roast was done. He pulled it from the
fire and
handed it to Coyote.

"I already have had my breakfast," Porcupine said. "So eat all you
want,
Cousin."

Coyote grabbed the roast and began chewing it. He ate every bit and
chewed
on the bones.

"That was most delicious, Cousin Porcupine," he said, when he had
licked his
chops free of every little speck of the roast.

After eating. Coyote said, "Come to my house in four days and I'll
see what
I can cook for you."

On the fourth day Porcupine waddled over to the home of Coyote. To
his
surprise Coyote had built a bark shed exactly like his own. He even
had
built a little fire in the shed, just as Porcupine had done.

"Come in. Cousin," Coyote invited him. "As you see, I have nothing
in the
house for you to eat, but I'll bring in a piece of bark at once."

Porcupine sat down beside the fire and waited.

Coyote rushed outside, humming a song, and soon came back with a
large piece
of bark.

Then he took a yucca leaf with a sharp point and pricked his nose.

The wise old Porcupine smiled.

"You may be wasting your time. Cousin," he said, as Coyote leaned
over the
bark with blood spurting from his nose. "Remember, your blood is not
the
same as mine."

"Blood is blood," Coyote chuckled, placing the bloody bark on the
fire. "Now
we'll see what kind of a roast I've made."

The bark got hot and the blood began to bubble. Then, suddenly, the
bark
caught fire and burned brightly. Coyote was horrified.

"What happened? What happened?" he asked, dancing around the fire as
the
bark turned to ashes. "The bark didn't turn into meat for me. Why
not?"

"Not all people have the same gifts," Porcupine answered. Looking
very
solemn, he got up and waddled away. Coyote sat beside the fire for a
long
time He was terribly unhappy. If the bark would turn to meat for
Porcupine,
why not for him?

Outside in a pinon tree Bluejay shrieked, "Squawk! Squawk!" and he
said,
"You can't have everything, Cousin."

Coyote didn't want advice just then. He tore a piece of bark from
his new
shed and threw it at the bluejay.

Then he felt a little better.

Taken from Coyote Stories of the Navajo People, Navajo Curriculum
Center
Press, 1974 School Board, Inc. Rough Rock Arizona.

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.