From: jim.farquharson@almac.co.uk (JIM FARQUHARSON)
Subject: Fox Folktales

Here is a folktale from the Miwok Native Americans as told by Joseph 
Bruchac.

Silver Fox and Coyote Create Earth

I want to meet someone,
I want to meet someone,
I want to meet someone,
I want to meet someone.

So she sang and then she met Coyote.

"I thought I was going to meet someone," Silver Fox said, "Where are you traveling ?"

"Where are you traveling ?" Coyote said, "Why are you traveling like this ?"

"I am traveling because I am lonely," Silver Fox said.

"I am also wandering around," said Coyote.

"Then it is better for two people to travel together," Silver Fox said.

Then as they traveled, Silver Fox spoke. "This is what I think," Silver Fox said. "Let us make the world."

"How will we do that ?" Coyote said.

"We will sing the world," said Silver Fox.

So the two of them began to sing and to dance. They danced around in a circle and Silver Fox thought of a clump of sod. Let it come, Silver Fox thought, and then that clump of sod was there in her hands. Silver Fox threw it down into the fog and they kept on singing and dancing.

"Look down," called Silver Fox, "do you see something there below us ?"

"I see something," said Coyote, "but it is very small."

"Then let us close our eyes and keep dancing and singing," said Silver Fox. And that is what they did, they danced and sang and beneath them the Earth took shape.

"Look down now," said Silver Fox.

Coyote looked down and said "I see it, it is very big now , it is big enough."

Then the two of them jumped down onto Earth. They danced and and sang and streched it out even more. They made everything on Earth, the valleys and the mountains, and the rivers and the lakes, the pines, the cedars, and the birds and the animal people.

That was what they did way back then.