Sacred Texts Native American Hopi Index Previous Next
Buy this Book at Amazon.com
The Traditions of the Hopi, by H.R. Voth, [1905], at sacred-texts.com
Alíksai! In Shupaúlavi, north of the village, is a bluff where there is a place called Cóoyoko House (Cóoyok-ki). Here the Cóoyoko lived. One time a Fox, who was very handsome, came along, and the Cóoyoko Uncle (Táhaam) was sitting on the edge of the bluff when the Fox came along. The sun had not yet risen, and the Cóoyoko was sitting and waiting to watch the sunrise. "Come here," he said to the Fox, "come to me here." "All right," the Fox said. and came. "Sit down, sit down with me," the Cóoyoko said, which the Fox did. ''Now," the Cóoyoko continued, "let us have a contest and see upon whose song the sun will rise. The one that loses shall
be killed with this knife here," which the Cóoyoko had, the Fox said. "Yes," the Cóoyoko said, "let us have a contest." "All right," the Fox said, "be it so. You sing first." So the Cóoyoko sang the following little song:
To -- ishkakolitai to -- ishkakolitai
Aaaha, iiihi-- 1
and then said to the Fox: "Now, you sing, too," whereupon the Fox sang the following song:
Ishka! Ishka!
Hereupon the Cóoyoko repeated his song. The sun by this time was just about to loom up. "Now you sing again," he said to the Fox, whereupon the latter repeated his song, and when he was singing, the sun loomed upon the horizon. So he had won the contest. "Alas!" the Cóoyoko said, "well now, I have wanted it this way and you have beaten me. Be it so then." The knife was lying by their side, so the Fox took it, approached the Cóoyoko, and cut the latter's throat. And so the latter died over a bet.
222:1 Told by Sik'áletsiwa (Shupaúlavi).