Edward Winslow Gifford - Miwok Myths - Part 7 lyrics

7. THE REPEOPLING OF THE WORLD Chief Eagle said, "Where is Coyote? Where is Coyote? He must try to resurrect the people. Where is Coyote? He must try to resurrect the people. What shall we do about our dead people? Who is going to help us? Tell Coyote to think." Thus spoke the chief. "Tell Coyote to think intently. All human beings are dead." So said Eagle to Coyote. Coyote said, "I do not know how I shall bring them back to life." Thus spoke Coyote, when he answered Eagle. "But," he continued, "I will try to bring them back. I will try to bring them back." He went to the top of a rock and slept. He dreamed that he saw a skeleton. Then he went to the chief and told him that he had seen a skeleton in his dream. The chief sent him back, saying, "That may help us. Go back and sleep again. If you dream again do not arise. The skeleton may talk to you." Coyote said, "No one helps the chief. He feels lonely. He mourns each day for the dead Indians." Then Coyote dreamed of the skeleton again. The skeleton awakened him and told him to sing. The skeleton said, "If you sing, the people will return." p. 313 Coyote sang in a great cave. The skeleton told Lesisko [translated as "devil" by the interpreter] that Coyote was singing in the cave. Coyote sang, "Come back, all of you girls. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back, all of you old people. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back, all of you women. Come back. Come back. Come back." Thus sang Coyote, when he called the people back after Eagle asked him to resurrect them. Prairie Falcon told Coyote to try hard to bring about the return of mankind. Coyote sang and cried for days and nights. Eagle cried. He said to Prairie Falcon, "I do not think Coyote will bring your people back." Coyote said, "The skeleton told me that, if I sang loudly each morning, some of the people would return, but not all." Then Coyote went to the chief and said, "The skeleton told me that by singing loudly every morning some of the people would return, but not all." The chief felt a bit better after he had this word from Coyote. Coyote said, "I think that I shall bring my people back. I think that I shall." Thus he spoke, when he talked with the chief. He felt very happy, when he said this to the chief. Then he continued, "I will go back to the cave and sing." Then he sang. He sang in the morning. First he brought one old man back to life. He tried to talk to the old man, but the latter would not answer him. The old man did not even shake his head. Coyote said, ''I will try some more singing." Coyote then visited the chief and told him, ''I shall bring the people back, but they will not be the same people. They will be very nearly the same people, but they will be a little different." The chief laughed. Then Coyote ran around the rock shouting, ran around the rock shouting. He felt glad that he had resurrected the people. He said, ''I brought back my grandson. Now there are many people. Now there are many people. Now there are many people. I brought them back. Now they are nearly the same as they were before." Then he climbed a hill. He ran around the hills and shouted. He went around the hills and shouted. Eagle. said, "He has made the same people. Coyote has done well." Thus spoke Chief Eagle, for he was glad to see the people alive again. Coyote still shouted and danced in his joy. The chief said to Hummingbird, "Go back and look at that mountain.'' Then Hummingbird went. All of the people returned. The p. 314 chief was glad to see his people. He said that the various kinds of baskets must return. The chief was glad. He said, "Coyote did it all." The chief told Chief Prairie Falcon, "Coyote secured the return of the people through the help of the skeleton." Then Coyote shouted, because he was glad that he had brought back his people. Thus spoke Coyote. Thus spoke Coyote. Chief Eagle said, "He brought back the people.'' Coyote said to Prairie Falcon, "We have saved our people. They have returned to their places. I have brought my people back." He told no one. He just thought about it, when he brought the people back. No one told him what to do. When he saw the people, he was glad. Coyote said, "I do not know what happened to us. I do not know what it was, that k**ed our old folks. I do not know whence the water came." Thus spoke Coyote, while he was running. Prairie Falcon said, when he answered his brother, "Yes, that is all right." Coyote shouted and shouted, when he secured the baskets, various sorts of baskets, the various sorts in which the people cook. He shouted and shouted, after he had brought back everything together with the people. He was glad to have his people again. Then he stopped shouting. He stopped shouting. He said, "It is all right. It is all right." But when he spoke he shouted again. Then he became accustomed to shouting and he still continues to do so. Because he was glad to see the people, he shouted.