The Coyote
from James Donahue's journal
Doris was riding with Elfrieda along one of the many dirt trails snaking their way across the Navajo reservation when a coyote ran across the road in front of the pickup. Elfrieda unexpectedly hit the brakes and brought her vehicle to a dead stop in the middle of the road. “Did you see that?” she asked in a frightened voice.
We learned that day about a strange native superstition. The Navajo believe that the coyote is a very bad omen, even worse than the ancient European belief about black cats. The coyote, whose natural habitat is the high desert regions of the southwest, plays an important role in most tribe beliefs. As explained earlier, tribal rituals include a dancer who plays the part of the coyote. When he appears he is always a cunning trickster. When he closes the rear of a procession of dancers or marchers, his job is to close up ranks and keep evil spirits away. But in this case, when the animal appeared on the road in front of Elfrieda’s truck, she believed the coyote was signaling the arrival of a bad spirit. The woman explained that unless something was done, one of the two riders in the truck would experience very bad fortune. That implied that the spirit would bring death or sickness to either the rider or to a close member of the family.
Navajos often carry loaded firearms in their vehicles for these kinds of emergencies. When a coyote is seen on the road, it must be killed. In this case, there was no rifle in the truck so Elfrieda produced her second alternative, a small bag of dried cedar. She used it in a ritual of prayer and then sprinkled the cedar on the road at the point where the coyote crossed. This apparently erased the evil spell so the two could continue safely on their journey. The alternative, at least in the mind of the Navajo, was to turn around and go another way. A third choice was to stop and wait until another vehicle passed, thus cutting the deadly cord. In Navajo country, these alternatives could mean either a very long wait or driving many miles out of your way.
One evening, Elfrieda was riding with Doris and me in our car on yet another road near Greasewood, a reservation community. We were amazed when yet another coyote crossed our path. “Stop the car!” she demanded. Now we were in a serious pickle. I carried no firearm in my car and there was no bag of dried cedar. We were on an isolated road in unknown territory, late at night, and the thought of turning around and driving those twisty dirt roads for hours was not something I wanted to do. The roads on the reservation are unmarked, they split off in a variety of directions and they go on for many miles. There are no signposts to help a traveler find his way. Waiting for another vehicle to pass might have kept us parked there all that night and part of the next day.
So what were we to do? While I was not worried about the appearance of a coyote, Doris and I respected the native beliefs and we wanted to do all we could to make sure no harm came to our friend and her family. If she believed the coyote would bring trouble, we thought it probably would happen.
We talked it over and Elfrieda thought of a solution to our dilemma. She told us to drive on, and to go directly home where Raymond, who you remember was a practicing medicine man, could repel any evil spirits with special prayers. After telling him our story, Raymond took hot coals from the wood burning stove and placed them on a metal dish on the floor. We all sat around the coals while he spoke prayers in the Navajo tongue. As he chanted, he sprinkled dried cedar on the coals. The cedar crackled as it burned and gave off a wonderful aroma. The medicine man used an eagle feather to wave the smoke over all three of us. We went to bed that night, confident that any evil spirits that might have attached themselves to us were gone and we were safe.
The following day, while we were washing clothes at a Laundromat near Winslow, Elfrieda appeared, her face ashen. “It happened again,” she cried. “Another coyote ran across the road in front of me. Now I know that it is me that is causing this thing.” She and Raymond left immediately on a trip to the Hopi Reservation where they consulted a powerful medicine man who they considered capable of dealing a situation as serious as this appeared to be. This man performed a ritual, touched Elfrienda’s hand, and by sensing her energy, revealed the cause of the trouble. His magic was special. He was known to the natives as a hand trembler. This ritual was so secret we were not allowed to be present. We had to wait until the following day to learn the conclusion to this strange story.
What they learned was that someone had placed a curse on both Elfrieda and Raymond. The Hopi medicine man told them to look inside their truck. There, he said they would find a ball of something with hair and paper in it, a black magician’s hex, stuffed somewhere near the seat on the driver’s side. This thing contained an evil spirit, which, if not removed, could cause the driver of the vehicle to have a serious accident. He said a second hex was placed somewhere in the dirt near a hogan directly behind their home.
Although it was winter, we were enjoying a warm and sunny day, so we went to work. We looked everywhere in the truck and found nothing. Raymond began dismantling the truck. We removed the seats, the floor mats, and finally started unfastening the screws holding the plastic walls. And there it was. A large mass of wadded paper and hair was discovered behind the wall directly behind the driver's seat. We removed it and destroyed it with fire. The truck did not appear to have been tampered with. Yet somehow, that evil ball of hair and paper had been magically placed between the interior and metal exterior walls of that truck cab.
Next we explored the earth near the front door of the hogan. After some amount of digging, a second ball of hair and paper was found. This also was destroyed.
Was the hex real? To the Navajo, these kinds of things are all taken very seriously. They live in an esoteric world of magic and spells that might baffle the mind of most outside observers. All this writer can say is that the woman stopped seeing coyotes on the road and no serious trouble fell on her or her family during the remainder of our stay.
from James Donahue's journal
Doris was riding with Elfrieda along one of the many dirt trails snaking their way across the Navajo reservation when a coyote ran across the road in front of the pickup. Elfrieda unexpectedly hit the brakes and brought her vehicle to a dead stop in the middle of the road. “Did you see that?” she asked in a frightened voice.
We learned that day about a strange native superstition. The Navajo believe that the coyote is a very bad omen, even worse than the ancient European belief about black cats. The coyote, whose natural habitat is the high desert regions of the southwest, plays an important role in most tribe beliefs. As explained earlier, tribal rituals include a dancer who plays the part of the coyote. When he appears he is always a cunning trickster. When he closes the rear of a procession of dancers or marchers, his job is to close up ranks and keep evil spirits away. But in this case, when the animal appeared on the road in front of Elfrieda’s truck, she believed the coyote was signaling the arrival of a bad spirit. The woman explained that unless something was done, one of the two riders in the truck would experience very bad fortune. That implied that the spirit would bring death or sickness to either the rider or to a close member of the family.
Navajos often carry loaded firearms in their vehicles for these kinds of emergencies. When a coyote is seen on the road, it must be killed. In this case, there was no rifle in the truck so Elfrieda produced her second alternative, a small bag of dried cedar. She used it in a ritual of prayer and then sprinkled the cedar on the road at the point where the coyote crossed. This apparently erased the evil spell so the two could continue safely on their journey. The alternative, at least in the mind of the Navajo, was to turn around and go another way. A third choice was to stop and wait until another vehicle passed, thus cutting the deadly cord. In Navajo country, these alternatives could mean either a very long wait or driving many miles out of your way.
One evening, Elfrieda was riding with Doris and me in our car on yet another road near Greasewood, a reservation community. We were amazed when yet another coyote crossed our path. “Stop the car!” she demanded. Now we were in a serious pickle. I carried no firearm in my car and there was no bag of dried cedar. We were on an isolated road in unknown territory, late at night, and the thought of turning around and driving those twisty dirt roads for hours was not something I wanted to do. The roads on the reservation are unmarked, they split off in a variety of directions and they go on for many miles. There are no signposts to help a traveler find his way. Waiting for another vehicle to pass might have kept us parked there all that night and part of the next day.
So what were we to do? While I was not worried about the appearance of a coyote, Doris and I respected the native beliefs and we wanted to do all we could to make sure no harm came to our friend and her family. If she believed the coyote would bring trouble, we thought it probably would happen.
We talked it over and Elfrieda thought of a solution to our dilemma. She told us to drive on, and to go directly home where Raymond, who you remember was a practicing medicine man, could repel any evil spirits with special prayers. After telling him our story, Raymond took hot coals from the wood burning stove and placed them on a metal dish on the floor. We all sat around the coals while he spoke prayers in the Navajo tongue. As he chanted, he sprinkled dried cedar on the coals. The cedar crackled as it burned and gave off a wonderful aroma. The medicine man used an eagle feather to wave the smoke over all three of us. We went to bed that night, confident that any evil spirits that might have attached themselves to us were gone and we were safe.
The following day, while we were washing clothes at a Laundromat near Winslow, Elfrieda appeared, her face ashen. “It happened again,” she cried. “Another coyote ran across the road in front of me. Now I know that it is me that is causing this thing.” She and Raymond left immediately on a trip to the Hopi Reservation where they consulted a powerful medicine man who they considered capable of dealing a situation as serious as this appeared to be. This man performed a ritual, touched Elfrienda’s hand, and by sensing her energy, revealed the cause of the trouble. His magic was special. He was known to the natives as a hand trembler. This ritual was so secret we were not allowed to be present. We had to wait until the following day to learn the conclusion to this strange story.
What they learned was that someone had placed a curse on both Elfrieda and Raymond. The Hopi medicine man told them to look inside their truck. There, he said they would find a ball of something with hair and paper in it, a black magician’s hex, stuffed somewhere near the seat on the driver’s side. This thing contained an evil spirit, which, if not removed, could cause the driver of the vehicle to have a serious accident. He said a second hex was placed somewhere in the dirt near a hogan directly behind their home.
Although it was winter, we were enjoying a warm and sunny day, so we went to work. We looked everywhere in the truck and found nothing. Raymond began dismantling the truck. We removed the seats, the floor mats, and finally started unfastening the screws holding the plastic walls. And there it was. A large mass of wadded paper and hair was discovered behind the wall directly behind the driver's seat. We removed it and destroyed it with fire. The truck did not appear to have been tampered with. Yet somehow, that evil ball of hair and paper had been magically placed between the interior and metal exterior walls of that truck cab.
Next we explored the earth near the front door of the hogan. After some amount of digging, a second ball of hair and paper was found. This also was destroyed.
Was the hex real? To the Navajo, these kinds of things are all taken very seriously. They live in an esoteric world of magic and spells that might baffle the mind of most outside observers. All this writer can say is that the woman stopped seeing coyotes on the road and no serious trouble fell on her or her family during the remainder of our stay.