Mosquito [wa' wa] and his grandmother [qa' tsa'tsin] were living together. He bit his grandmother to death, sucked all of her blood. Then he consumed all of her body. He then built a canoe and drifted downstream in it. He bawled, and he wept as he went along lamenting the death of his grandmother. "Oh, my grandmother, oh, my grandmother; o my grandmother, oh, my grandmother," he kept saying as he went along.
Coyote [itsaya' ya] dashed out to the bank of the river toward him and said, "Why is Mosquito, that you weep so much?"
Mosquito replied, "It is only that I went hunting and shot an antlered buck which I brought home. My grandmother ate the fat, but it so happened that the fat had rotted. She died of the poisonous fat."
Coyote now began to suspect him and accordingly said to him, "Put into shore for root food."
"That is just exactly what I do not relish, that is just exactly what I do not relish; oh my grandmother, oh, my grandmother."
Coyote said to him again, "Put into shore for root-loaf."
"That is to me particularly unsavory, that is to me particularly unsavory; oh, my grandmother, oh, my grandmother."
Here Coyote turned to the people and said. "Make your noses bleed; it is very likely that he has killed his grandmother." They made their noses bleed, and procured five pails full of blood. Now he said to Mosquito, "Put into shore for five pails full of blood."
Mosquito replied quickly to that, "Can't be true, can't be true; can't be true, can't be true."
Mosquito's sudden eagerness to put into shore resulted in a broken paddle, but he seized another quickly. He put into shore speedily, saying as he went, "Can't be true, can't be true; can't be true, can't be true." He arrived at the shore and Coyote said to him, "So it was thus so piteously that my grandfather's brother's daughter came to her end?" "Yes, that is what happened."
"Then tie your canoe there," Coyote told him. Mosquito tied his canoe there, and they went to the lodge. Coyote said to him, "There is your blood, five pails full; eat just as much as you like. I shall be busily occupied outside." Coyote went outside and there he burned off the rye grass leaving it a stubble.
Now Mosquito dipped his head into one pail, entirely draining it; then into another he tipped his head, draining it entirely; then into another and another -- all drained His belly low became taut. He dipped his head into the fifth and drained half. Now his belly became stretched tight and protruded on all sides.
Coyote then shouted to him from outside, "Your canoe is floating away; your canoe is floating away." Mosquito jumped to his feet and dashed from the lodge. His belly was very large, but he ran down the hill. There he stumbled and fell. He popped open and, "Gush," he bled to death because Coyote had burned the grass to a stubble leaving the rye grass like so many needles.
Coyote said to the dead one, "Where could you have been hunting and obtained rotten fat from which she could have eaten and died? You, yourself, bit your grandmother to death. The human race is coming in only a short time. There they will say, It is already this time of the year, for the mosquito is buzzing.
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