| Wolf and Coyote
Shoshone
The two deities who worked out the conditions of life and death at the beginning of Time. Wolf, being a generous soul, told Coyote that he'd arranged creation so that the dead could be brought back to life by shooting arrows under their bodies. Coyote thought this a dangerous loophole: given the way people liked to procreate, the world would soon be overcrowded. "When people die," Coyote insisted, "they should stay dead". Wolf deactivated the trick and then chose Coyote's son as the first man to die. The grieving father brought his son to Wolf and asked that he be resurrected, but the Creator god was adamant about enforcing the natural law that Coyote had demanded and, so, death has remained in the world ever since.
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