This was in those days when the world was just being created. The mighty Kareya first released fish into the oceans, then animals into the forests, and then created man. All the animals were then equal in strength, so Kareya called a man to him and said:
- Make as many bows and arrows as I created animals. At my sign you will distribute them to the animals. You will give the biggest bow and arrows to the one who is the strongest. The smallest one goes to the one who has the least strength.
The man set to work and by the end of the ninth day he had prepared just as many bows and arrows as Kareya created animals. Then Kareya called all the animals and announced that the next morning a man would come to them and give each one an onion. Whoever gets the biggest will get the most power.
Of course, every animal wanted to get the bow first. And the coyote decided to outsmart everyone. He decided not to sleep at all that night. After all, if he sees a person first, then, of course, he will get the biggest bow.
Night came, all the animals went to rest, the coyote also lay down and pretended to be asleep. At midnight he really wanted to sleep, his eyes closed on their own. He jumped up and began to wander around, but he wanted to sleep more and more unbearably. The coyote began to jump and gallop to shake off his slumber, but the noise woke up the animals. He had to stop what he was doing.
Sleep came on more and more irresistibly, and the coyote’s eyes were stuck together. Then he took two sticks, sharpened them at both ends and inserted them between the eyelids instead of spacers. He did this and decided that now he could sleep peacefully, because his eyes would follow the morning star themselves, and as soon as it appeared in the sky, he would get up. But within a few minutes the coyote was fast asleep, and the sharp sticks, instead of holding his eyelids open, pinned them tightly. So, when all the animals began to rise in the morning, the coyote slept like the dead.
The animals came out to meet the man and receive their bows. The largest bow went to the cougar, the next to the bear, and the penultimate bow went to the frog.
But there was one more, the smallest bow left.
-Which of the animals did I miss? - asked the man.
The animals began to look around and then they spotted a coyote, who was still fast asleep. The animals laughed and began to dance around him. Then they lifted the coyote and brought him to the man, because he himself could not see anything - after all, his eyes were tightly closed with sticks.
The man took out his sticks and handed the coyote the smallest bow.
The animals laughed so much that the man felt sorry for the coyote, whom she had now come to recognize as the weakest of the animals, and he decided to put in a word with Kareya in defense of the coyote. It was then that Kareya agreed to give the coyote more cunning than any of the animals.
That's where the coyote gets its cunning.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru