This is a legend from Siskiyou Bar,
About " The Coyote Who Danced with a Star. "

Now, great were the deeds that Coyote had done!
Coyote had stolen the flame of the Sun;
Coyote had opened the Frost-Wizard's pen,
Releasing the Salmon, desired of men.
Coyote was proud of his craft and his might,
His fleetness of foot and his clearness of sight,
His scent, that was choicest of all that is choice,
But most was he vain of his wonderful voice!
He sat like a monarch exalted on high
Where Sisson's cold summits are keen in the sky,
And watched on the sweep of ethereal blue
The Stars and their satellites pass in review.
Aloft and alone
O'er Shasta's white cone
A mischievous Star-fairy twinkled and shone.
So lightly she danced
That, charmed and entranced,
Coyote cried boldly, " Fair, heavenly Sprite,
Permit me to join in your glorious flight;
I beg, — I demand!
Oh, reach me your hand!
Together we'll frolic o'er water and land. "
How flashed the Aurora, till heaven and earth
Were gay with the glow of celestial mirth!
" O hairy Coyote! how stupid you are
To dream for a moment to dance with a Star! "

What pencil will venture — what brush will engage
To show the Coyote in justified rage?
He lifted his muzzle, he stiffened his tail,
Affrighting the Night with a quavering wail.
With yelp and with yowl,
With growl and with howl,
He startled the Owl and the Panther aprowl.
He screamed like a baby bereft of his toys;
He shattered the sky with his scandalous noise,
With his " Yap! yap! ki-yee! "
In its weird minor key, —
For never was singer remorseless as he.
All vainly the Fairy cajoled and denied;
He wouldn't hear reason. Then, wearied, she cried,
" I wish you were dumb!
You're crazy; but — come! "
And gingerly reached him a finger and thumb.
He leaped! — and away, like the shaft and the feather,
The Star and Coyote were flying together.

And now, as he fled with that Spirit of Light
There rushed far beneath him a glorious sight
Of ranges and canons and barrens and plains,
Of rivers cascading with turbulent rains,
Of armies of bison, and cimmaron gray,
And legions of antelopes bounding away;
The towns of the Mandans, the Nez Perce ranches,
The Utes, Pi-Utes, the dashing Comanches
And Modocs, in-reining their snorting cayuses
And shouting to women with wickered papooses,
" Look! See! " — as they waved to that vision afar,
" The Clever Coyote, above, with a Star! "
To caper in style
For many a mile
Careering the heavens, was grand! — for a while.
But frostily grew on Coyote, apace,
The awe and the horror of limitless space.
He felt on his temples the grip of a vise;
The hand of his Partner seemed colder than ice.
'Twas dreadful to gaze upon mountains — like barrows!
The tents of the Kahrocs like flint heads of arrows;
The silvery Klamath, whose broad-bosomed flow
Showed meager, 'mid hills, like the string of a bow
Relaxed after battle. Grown dizzy and numb,
He loosened his hold on the finger and thumb
And dropped to the earth like a meteor — plumb!
And lit with a — spat!
As flat as a mat!
So here is the Moral from Siskiyou Bar:
" You Callow Coyote, don't dance with no Star! "