Coyote
Coyote AmericaThe trickster deity of south-western North American myth—a distant cousin of Reynard the Fox. Among the Maidu Indians, an ancient Californian people, the creator deity Wonomi yielded place to Coyote his adversary; but it was not because the adversary was stronger, but because, as Wonomi admitted sadly, men had followed him and not their creator.
After the creation of the world, Coyote and his dog Rattlesnake came up out of the ground. Coyote watched Wonomi create Kuksu, the first man, and Laidamlulum-kule, or Morning Star Woman, his spouse. But when the trickster tried to create people too, he laughed and they were made glass-eyed. Coyote watched the easy way of life that Wonomi had given to the ancestors of mankind, and he decided that it would be more interesting to add sickness, sorrow, and death. Coyote was even pleased when the first person to die was his own son, from a bite given by Rattlesnake. Perhaps the trickster expected...
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