Teeth in the wrong places
(Ponca-Otoe)
When Coyote was roaming around for adventures, looking for great deeds to do, someone told him of an evil sorceress, an old woman who lived with her two wicked daughters. Many young men went there to sleep with the daughters, who very beautiful, but none was ever seen alive again.
Coyote said, “That’s just the place I want to go.”
“Be careful,” said the person who told him about it. “Whatever you do, don’t sleep with these girls. It would kill you, or so I’ve been told.”
“How could sleeping with two pretty women kill a man?” thought Coyote, and off he went.
The old woman was very nice to him when he arrived. Her two daughters were very beautiful. “Come in, come in,” the mother said. “You’re a good looking young man, just the kind of person I’d like to have for a son-in-law.”
Coyote went into the tipi with his bow and quiver. “Sit down, sit down,” the old woman said. “You’ll get something good to eat. My daughters will serve you.”
The girls brought Coyote many good dishes- buffalo hump, tongues, all kinds of meat. One of the daughters, the older one, said “You sure are handsome.” Coyote thought to himself: “My informant was wrong; these are good people.”
By nightfall, Coyote was full of good food and getting drowsy. “You must be tired after your journey,” the old woman said. “And it’s cold outside. Lie down to sleep between my two daughters- they’ll keep you warm.”
Coyote snuggled between the two girls. He felt amorous, but he wondered. In the dark the face of the younger girl brushed his; she was whispering in his ear: “Pretty soon my sister will ask you to sleep with her. I’m supposed to ask you too, but you mustn’t do it.”
“Why not?” asked Coyote.
“The old woman is a witch,” said the girl. “She’s not really my mother; I’m her prisoner, though the other girl is her daughter. This witch has put teeth into both our vaginas, and when a man comes to visit she gets him to copulate with us. Then these teeth take hold of his penis and chew it to bits. Once he puts it in, he can’t pull it out, no matter how hard he tries. You should hear those poor young men cry. They cry until they die.”
“Why do you tell me this?”
“I like you and I hate doing the old woman’s dirty work. After the poor young men are dead, she takes all their things. She likes robbing them, but she likes hearing them die even better.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then listen. Do you hear the noise?”
“Yes, I do hear it, a strange noise.”
“It’s the grinding of the sharp teeth inside our vaginas.”
Coyote heard the grinding. He believed what the girl said.
Coyote and the girl pretended to sleep. After a while the older girl, the old woman’s daughter, pulled at his sleeve. “Strong young man,” she whispered. “You must be hot for us. Let us make you happy. Get on top of me. Quick, get into me.” Coyote could hear the teeth gnashing furiously inside her vagina.
“I’ve been thinking of nothing else since I first saw you, pretty one,” said Coyote. “Let me get my clothes off.”
“Hurry up,” said the impatient girl. “Don’t dawdle. Put it in!”
Coyote took hold of a thick, long stick still warm from the fire, and stuck it deep into that wicked girl’s vagina.
“Oh, a real man at last,” said the girl. “How good it feels! A real big one for a change!” The teeth inside her were chewing, and wood splinters were flying out all over Coyote. “Whew!” he thought. “This is really something!” Quickly he grabbed an arrow from his quiver and thrust it deep into the girl before the teeth could snap shut. The teeth closed upon the shaft near the feathers, but it was too late: the arrow head had already reached the evil girl’s heart, and she died.
Then Coyote went over to the old woman and killed her with his knife. He told the younger girl: “You’ve saved my life, so come with me and I’ll marry you.”
“How can you?” asked the girl. “I’d like to be your wife, but I have these teeth in the wrong place.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Coyote told her, “so come on.”
They started off for Coyote’s house and walked all in one day. When evening came, Coyote built a brush shelter for the two of them. He put sage into it for a bed. “Now I’m going to make love to you,” he said.
“No never!” said the girl. “It would kill you.”
“Well, of course, first I have to knock your teeth out,” said Coyote. “And not the ones in your head!”
So he knocked out the teeth in the girl’s vagina – except for one blunt tooth that was very thrilling when making love. They were very happy, Coyote and this girl.
from “American Indian Myths and Legends”
selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz