The Bluebird and Coyote
The bluebird was once a very ugly color. But there was a lake where no river flowed in or out, and the bird bathed in it four times every morning for four mornings. Every morning it sang:
There's a blue water, it lies there.
I went in.
I am all blue.
On the fourth morning it shed all its feathers and came out of the lake in its bareskin, but on the fifth morning it came out with with blue feathers. All this while Coyote had been watching the bird. He wanted to jump in and get it, but he was afraid of the water.
On that fifth morning he said, "How is it that all your ugly color has come out and now you are blue and gay and beautiful? You're more beautiful than anything that flies in the air. I want to be blue too." Coyote was at that time a bright green.
"I went in four times," said the bird, and taught Coyote the song. So Coyote went in four times, and the fifth time he came out as blue as the little bird.
That made him feel very proud. As he walked along, he looked on every side to see if anyone was noticing how fine and blue he was. He looked to see if his shadow was blue too, and so he was not watching the road. Presently he ran into a stump so hard that it threw him down in the dirt, and he became dust-colored all over. And to this day all coyotes are the color of dirt.
A story reported by Frank Russell in 1908.
