by Alan Nafzger & Lilly Tabbytite (Comanche)
Crow had been consuming some sort of dead animal. He was now sitting beneath some trees, smoking his pipe. Coyote stood a little further away, watching Crow smoke. He thought this was strange.
Crow was sitting when Coyote approached. "What are you up to?" I noticed you with smoke in your mouth. "Does your mouth smoke?"
"No, that isn't smoke coming from my mouth." It's early in the morning. "You're only seeing my breath."
"It's not your breath," I say.
Coyote continued to ask Crow what it was until Crow told him. "Well, I'll tell you what," Crow said, "I was smoking."
"Can you tell me what kind of plant you're using?"
"I have some at my place. I only have a small amount with me right now."
Crow took some tobacco and rolled a cigarette for Coyote with an oak leaf. Bearberry was the tobacco. Crow had two kinds of tobacco, this one and another he got somewhere else. They sat there smoking.
"Whenever you want to pray, you should offer this smoke," Crow advised. This is extremely holy. When you have tobacco, the girls like you as well."
"Where do you live?" Coyote inquired.
"I don't have a place to live," Crow explained. "I live in the branches of old trees."
But Coyote was not convinced. "I know every bird, every person has a home," he said. Some may live in a hole, others in a cave, and still others in a nest. But everyone has a place to live.
"Yes, I have a home," Crow finally admitted.
He brought Coyote to his house. The Crow displayed his tobacco to Coyote. "This is some fine tobacco," Crow said. Coyote kept an eye on Crow's tobacco stash. They were smokers.
"Well, I have to go home," Coyote said after a while. "I have a lot on my plate."
He made Crow believe he was returning home. But he came to a halt on the other side of the hill, hiding in the bushes, waiting for Crow to leave.
Crow returned to where he had been eating the dead animal around noon. Coyote dashed to Crow's house. He went straight to Crow's tobacco stash and took it all.
Crow returned to his camp with Crow's tobacco and started smoking constantly. People from other tribes came to ask, "What are you smoking?" He refused to answer. They asked for some, but he refused to give any away.
People wanted to smoke, so they decided to deceive him. They dressed up a young boy as a girl.
One man approached Coyote and said, "I will let you marry my daughter, but I will not accept a deer as a gift." "I have to have tobacco."
Coyote remembered Crow telling him about how tobacco made him popular with the ladies. He was overjoyed and gave some of his tobacco away.
People built a tipi for him. The girl was very attractive. "You don't have to wait for anything," they said. Simply enter with your new wife. "
People came in after Coyote and sat around, asking for more tobacco because he hadn't given it all away. "You are my son-in-law," or "You are my brother-in-law," they said, and Coyote had to give them tobacco.
Coyote continued to try to get rid of the people. He explained that he needed to go hunting early in the morning. But they refused to leave.
They went outside the tipi once the tobacco was gone. Coyote thought they'd left, but they were still nearby, listening.
"You'd better put out this fire and make me a bed," Coyote said to his wife. "I'm exhausted."
Coyote had to do the work himself because she wouldn't move. He extinguished the fire and made the bed.
Once they were under the robes, Coyote wrapped his arms around the girl. He started running his hands through her hair and down her body.
"You shouldn't do it," she advised. "I'm having my period."
"It won't bother me." The coyote jumped on her and grabbed her genitals. Then he realized it wasn't a girl.
"You must give me back my tobacco!" "Coyote!" he yelled as he ran out of the tipi.
They had, however, already smoked some of it. Others had already given it away. He never received any of it back.
That's how he got rid of his tobacco. He left, embarrassed.