AFC 1933/001 WRITINGS -- "Coyote Wisdom (1938), Southwest Review 371 File Under J.A. Lomax For the [ ] Review COYOTE WISDOM Texas Folklore Society Publications, Number XIV (1938) Whatever happens in the next literary aeon or two, folklore in the South- west will be closely associated-let us say almost synonymous- with the name of one man, J.Frank Dobie, called by some of his intimates "Poncho Dobie". Not only has he been the outstanding leader in the movement to preserve the lore of the South- west, but he has also been a masterful interpreter, a forceful and resolute, sometimes even pugnacious exponent of "regional" literature. Without quarreling over this term let us agree that literature may have a local setting and still be literature; a for- eign locale is not absolutely necessary, not a time ancient as the pyramids of Egypt. But to win Frank Dobie's interest and favor quickly it would be well to remember his distinct bias for "the awareness of things that surround" us. Had Frank ever won the degree of Doctor of Philosophy- (May God long delay it!)- his thesis could have been nothing else save a fierce polemic against the "sheer ignorance and stupid pedantry" of those who fail to realize the naturalness and the inevitableness of re- gional literature. Truly this man would have been willing to become a martyr for his cause. Fortunately he possessed some friends, stategically [strategically] situated, who have helped prevent the tragedy when help was needed. No longer is there work for them to do, save to swell the chorus of praise for what Frank Dobie has accomplished, or to cheer as he moves ahead to more admirable achievements. In addition to being a "full" professor in the University of Texas, Dobie turns out about a book a year, publishes numerous short stories and articles annual- ly in standard magazines, wins a Guggenheim Fellowship whenever he wishes one, or se- cures an appointment for a friend, meanwhile shooting a hatling g un against injust- ices, ranging from the policies of the new deal to reform in the parking laws of th e city of Austin, Texas. But such activities, after all, are the smaller part. He is devoted to the 2 craft of writing. He even thinks that a teacher of English should be able to ex- press his ideas, "if any", in a readable style. A happy nuance, a happily turned phrase, delicate shades of thought, even words as coarse and brutal as brickbats, motivate h his life. Like Sentimental Tommy he will sit up all night, or fail to pass an examina- tion, while he searches for the precise word to blend harmoniously into his intellect- ual phantasies. He knows that any competent writer must be in a very definite sense an artist, and, whatever else Dobie may do, he has already won his accolade. Professor George Lyman Kittredge of Harvard University says that the Intro- duction to Coronado's Children is among the few examples of great writing yet pro- duced in America. Coronado's Children will live, -even the title was in inspira- tion,- as will The Vaquero of the Bruch Country, among the several good books of which Dobie is the author. But the chief work of Frank Dobie is yet to be mentioned. As Harry Steger would have said, he is the "heart, liver, lights and lungs" of the Texas Folk-Lore Society. He found a weak, aenemic, startved, orphan, struggling along amid an unfriendly and sneering local environment,- just one more useless organization, futilely exist- ing, kept alive because seeing things die is so unpleasant! In fourteen years under his leadership, the Society has become respectable, its membership an honor, its lit- erature in demand by scholars and the best libraries. These fourteen years of Dobie's stewardship, disguised under the title of "secretary", have seen fourteen noteworthy books partially reveal the activities of the Society. The latest of these volumes, 1938, is Coyote Wisdom. Other titles in the series, which should arrest the atten- tion of anyone except the sterile stick-in-the-mud anatomical critic, Foller de Drinkin' Gourd (1928), Tone the Bell Easy (1932), Spur-of-the-Cock (1933), Puro Mexicano (1935), Straight Texas (1937). ******************************************** "I am the Coyote that sings each night at dark; It was by gobbling prairie dogs I got such a bark. ******************* I'm a roaring, ranting orchestra with lunatics becrammed; I'm a vocalized tornado-I'm the shrieking of the damned." 3 Charles F. Lummis describes the Coyote's wail as "a wild medley of bark, howl, shriek and whine." He is the only breathing that is a ventriloquist at birth. You never know whether his noise comes from north, south, east, or west, so that half a dozen coyotes seem like a hundred. Out here on Mustang Island a bunch sings me to sleep every night. Like Dobie I think the Coyote is good company. To me he only seems to be complaining that he cannot explore the stars that twinkle beyond his reach. Of all the names he has won I like best those that point out his qualities as musician: Desert Serenader, Voice of the Night, Desert Troubadour, the Patti o of the Plains. The anal gies of the resemblance of animal traits to human traits are ol- der than civilization. Such stories often reflect credit on the animal instead of on man. Reynard the Fox in France, Chanticleer in Chaucer, Bre'er Rabbit in our own American Uncle Remus are examples, though these stories go much farther back,. The old writers only set down (without the aid of Folk-lore Societies) what was carried in the minds of the people as an inheritance from the far past. Lattevi Ajaii, a young African from the Yoruba district, once gave me an excellent version of Chaucer's "Chanticleer", which he said he first heard told around a campfire in the African jungle, where he tribe sat in a circle at night listening to the tall tales of their elders. Coyote, as the flare declares, "is the hero of this book. He is well worth reading about." It is. Miss Lillian Elizabeth Barclay, a teacher in the Waco High School, won the degree of Master of Arts in The University of Texas partly on a thesis entitled, "The Coyote: Animal and Folk Character." She says, "If all the Coyote tales told by the Amerinds were collected, there would be enough to fill several volumes, . . . revealing a whole system of religion and philosophy," much of which is "found in the reports of the Jesuit fathers." The "figure head of the West," says James W. Steele," should not be the buffalo bot the coyote, because he comes closer to being the representative animal of this region." He belongs to the desert country 4 "as essentially as do the dry arroyos and washes along which he skulks." That Don Coyote has impressed himself on travelers and writers is borne out by the fact that Miss Barclay's bibliography contains 262 items. The Indians named the Coyote, and the animal is found nowhere else. He is pue American. The Wichita Falls High School Football Coyotes have chosen this name wisely. They have a right to be proud of their name, even though no man likes to be called a coyote. But, as Miss Barclay points out, the coyote shows good judgment in running away. All the time he is planning to come back if he leaves food behind. "He excels all his rivals in cunning and intelligence. His business is to find and get his dai- ly meat." He gets it, by employing patience and skill. And his race holds on to exis- tence longer than other animals. Instead of being wiped out, as has been the buffalo and the fur-bearing animals, the coyote has spread over the country from the West. Now the Eastern States are asking for bounties to help exterminate him. In Indian myth the coyote was sometimes divine, sometimes the Great Spirit's first Lieutenant. As the latter he first makes the world a fit place to live in; then restores it after the great flood. He invents fire, he invokes death and then sheds the first tears when his son becomes a victim. In countless Indian legends his clever resourcefulness is rewarded by leadership in the affairs of the universe. He was before man. He even set out the qualities of man. he should be given the best points of all the animals, as a fianl touch he craftiness and the cunning of the c coyote. There's alot more about Don Coyote in the volume, Coyote Wisdom, than Miss Barclay's excellent essay, abridged. Dan Storm has some sympathetic and artistic pictures in "the Little Animals of Mexico." There are Pueblo Indian variations of Old World tales, attractively presented by Miss Elizabeth Willis DeHuff, who also adds a chapter of Navajo Creation Myths. The latter half of the volume is a miscellany 5 of shorter articles, including negro stories, tall tales, comic yarns of the cir- cuit rider and the Texas frontier,-(You shouldn't miss "Pie-Biter" by John Gould of Wichita Falls)-, the story of the curse of Marihuana and other tales of equal interest. As if to add dignity where dignity is not needed, Professor R.A. Tsanoff of Rice Institute, now President of the Texas Folk-lore Society, writes so the aver- age reader may understand without a dictionary about "philosophy in Folk-lore," Indeed, in this handsomely printed and ilustrated book may be found material to in- terest the entire family. No Texas library worthy of the name should be without a copy of Coyote Wisdom. The man who has made this book possible, and thirteen others devoted to T Texas and Southwestern Lore, is, as I have said before, J. Frank Dobie, writer, teacher, lover of the open range, hater of sham and injustice, preacher and practicer of free sp eech, a good fellow.. He needs a hundred patrons to he lp promote folk-lore work. More than that number ought quickly to volunteer. John A. Lomax Fort Aransas, Texas March 2, 1939 Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.