“Next morning, he set to work digging a hollow in the ridge where Suuke lived, then rolled a heavy stone into it, then another, smaller stone. He gathered leg bones of antelope and placed those beside the stones. Finally, he brought a bowl of yellow medicine-water and sat on the large stone with the bones, breaking them with the smaller stone, pretending to bathe his lips in the medicine.

“The Suuke must have heard the pounding for he emerged from his cave and saw Coyote and asked what he was doing. Coyote replied that he was making himself a faster runner by breaking his bones and repairing them with the yellow medicine. Is it possible? the Suuke asked. Will you show me? Coyote set the antelope bone near his leg and pretended he’d crushed his bone, screaming in pain, then bathed it in yellow medicine.

“After he’d done this with both hind legs and both front paws, he arose and ran around the Suuke as fast as he could, kicking a fury of dust around the demon. Coyote said, See. I’m faster than any deer or antelope.

“The Suuke, eager to try, sat on the large stone as Coyote had. He picked up the smaller stone, held it high above his head, then brought it down with so much force it crushed his thigh to splinters. Screaming in pain, he applied the yellow medicine.

“When nothing happened, he asked, When will the pain stop? Coyote told him he had to crush all four bones, his legs and arms, before the medicine-water would work. So the Suuke proceeded to splinter his own bones.

“Once he had crushed both legs and one arm, he asked, How will I crush the last? I cannot lift the stone with my broken arm. Coyote offered to help him, and the Suuke laid his last arm across the stone.

“So ended the Suuke, but this is not the end of my story.

“Coyote returned to the gods of prey and told them what he’d done, but they did not receive him as the hero he thought they would. That foul-smelling beast, they said, will always make a Coyote of himself.

“Still, they allowed him to go hunting with them the next day, grateful at least their children were not snatched and eaten by the Suuke on their way.

“All day, Coyote tried and failed to catch a single antelope or deer, and all day the gods of prey laughed at him. Determined to show how capable he was, Coyote said he would go off on his own to hunt and would impress them with his catch.

“The gods of prey indicated much game could be caught along Wolf Canyon, if Coyote stayed to the east when the road forked, but it would go bad for him if he went west.

“When he came to the fork, Coyote could not remember which trail they’d said.

“And he trotted toward the west.