Coyote Wisdom

9781574410884

1574410881

This especially substantial folkish son-of-a-gun stew concocted by J. Frank Dobie and associates is distinguished by a wide variety of materials; there is also an equally great variation in methods of treatment, ranging from the simplest recording of single items, like anecdotes, folk remedies or sayings, through the skilfully retold primitive legend, to the scientific, though quite idiomatic, anthropological report, and to the scholarly analysis of the philosophy of the folk. The theme and hero of the volume, Old Man Coyote, animal and folk character, is enlighteningly discussed in the Aztec meanings of his name, the many nicknames attached to him, his remarkably clever tricks and ability to take care of himself, his pre-eminent place in Indian folklore as a creative power, his ubiquity in Mexican lore, his similarity to such other animal tricksters as Reynard the Fox and Br'er Rabbit. Indian legends are well represented in other contributions while folk customs appear in two vividly contrasted accounts. The spirit of the frontier folk enlivens several articles. Book jacket.