Coyote and the Origin of Death (Article Sample)

Literature & Language Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date Coyote and the Origin of Death This legendary story describes an extraordinary man who punished evil people in the society with death and death is thought to have emanated from his spiritual being. According to the legend, death was not experienced in the beginning until when Coyote declared that people should die because the word was becoming so much populated. At the same time, the available food was not sufficient to feed the growing number of people. The two problems, Coyote said, would be solved by death. However, there was objection from other people who claimed that the action would make the world a sad place to live. Originally, coyote did not term death as an eternal state as he wanted people to leave the world for a little while and then come back later. A council was then held that proposed the construction of a large grass house facing the east (McCombs, n. d). The grass house would be a place where the departed souls would meet medicine men for restoration of their lives. The council then gathered all men of the tribe and informed that that whenever a person was dead, he would be brought at the large grass house for restoration of life. The large grass house was finally build and a white and black eagle feather was placed on the top of the house. The chief medicine man declared that whenever the white feather became bloody and fell, people would know that a person had died. Whenever this happened, they were supposed to gather at the house and sing songs until the person regained his life. In one incident, a young man killed in a battle was restored at the medicine man’ house. The incident made coyote unhappy and he declared that death should be a permanent condition. He, thereafter, fled the village (McCombs, n. d). The reason that Coyote had for people not to die and return to life was because the available resources such as shelter and food would not sustain the whole population and, thus, making it difficult for people to live a comfortable life (McCombs, n. d). Coyote was not evil in that he had the freedom to express what he thought about the matter .It is logical to oppose that when people die and live again while others keep on giving birth, the population would increase significantly, thus, stretching on the available resources which are food and shelter .On the other hand, Coyote is evil in the sense that ...