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Show 63 The boys ran their best, but the Swallow boy pulled ahead of the Coyote boy. Before long the Coyote boy could not see even the footprints of the Swallow boy. When he reached the Rio Grande River, the marker of the Swallow Clan had been placed, so the Coyote boy knew he had been there. The Coyote boy called his special coyote call that traveled through the air to the Coyote kiva where the elders were praying for the boy. "We knew this would happen," said the men. "The Swallow Clan has used its magical powers to change their boy into a Swallow, the fastest bird." "Now we must use our own power," the Coyote elders said. They began to make rain fall on the Swallow boy. The water soaked his feathers and slowed him down. Soon the Coyote boy passed the Swallow, but the ground became muddy and hard for the Coyote boy to run in, and the Swallow passed him again. The Coyote boy remembered the string and dried gourd shell his elders had given him. He placed them on the ground as he had been told to do. He turned around and there was a magic shield for him to travel on. The shield carried him through the air past the Swallow who had stopped to dry his feathers under a tree. The Swallow and the shield, carrying the Coyote boy raced to each of the rivers, placing their mark with first one in the lead and then the other. On the way back to Sikyatki, the Coyote boy was told to shoot the Swallow boy if he was still in the form of a bird. So the elders told the Swallow to turn himself back into a boy. The Coyote boy was also told by the priests to get off his shield. Together the boys raced on foot towards the colored lines. The clans cheered. First one boy pulled ahead, and then the other. |