Reading Notes: Native American, Reading B
1. Southwestern and Californian Legends: How the Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors by Katherine Berry Judson (1912).
A long time ago, the Bluebird was actually a very ugly color. A Bluebird knew of a lake, however, where water neither flowed in to or out from. He bathed in this lake four times every morning for four mornings. The mornings he bathed, he would sing a song, "There's a blue water. It lies there. I went in. I am all blue."
The fourth morning the Bluebird bathed there he came out of the water with bare skin, having shed all his feathers. The next morning when he came out of the lake, he was covered in beautiful blue feathers.
A Coyote had been watching the Bluebird this whole time. He had been wanting to eat him but was too afraid of the water. At seeing the Bluebird on that last morning however, he asked him how he was able to turn such a beautiful color. He told the Bluebird he wanted to be blue, too.
The Bluebird told him how he had gone to the lake four times on four mornings, and told him the song he sang. The Coyote went and did as the Bluebird had said, and sure enough on the fifth time he left the lake, he was blue too!
He was so mesmerized by his blue color that he did not pay attention to anything else but himself. While walking, he ran into a stump so hard that it threw him down in the dirt and covered him with dust all over. That is why today coyotes are the color of dirt.
Bibliography:
Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).
A long time ago, the Bluebird was actually a very ugly color. A Bluebird knew of a lake, however, where water neither flowed in to or out from. He bathed in this lake four times every morning for four mornings. The mornings he bathed, he would sing a song, "There's a blue water. It lies there. I went in. I am all blue."
The fourth morning the Bluebird bathed there he came out of the water with bare skin, having shed all his feathers. The next morning when he came out of the lake, he was covered in beautiful blue feathers.
A Coyote had been watching the Bluebird this whole time. He had been wanting to eat him but was too afraid of the water. At seeing the Bluebird on that last morning however, he asked him how he was able to turn such a beautiful color. He told the Bluebird he wanted to be blue, too.
The Bluebird told him how he had gone to the lake four times on four mornings, and told him the song he sang. The Coyote went and did as the Bluebird had said, and sure enough on the fifth time he left the lake, he was blue too!
He was so mesmerized by his blue color that he did not pay attention to anything else but himself. While walking, he ran into a stump so hard that it threw him down in the dirt and covered him with dust all over. That is why today coyotes are the color of dirt.
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| Blue Bird on a Perch. Source: MaxPixel. |
Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).
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