As Trickster was walking along, he came to a particularly scenic land. Since he was getting sleepy, he decided to lay down and take a nap, so he laid under his blanket and went to sleep. After awhile, he woke up and as he looked up he could see something floating above him. He thought to himself, "Ah, yes! It is the chief's banner — they always do thus when they are about to give a feast." Then he noticed that his blanket was missing and he suddenly realized that it was the blanket that was floating above him. It was high in the air because Trickster had had an erection during his sleep. He said to himself, "Thus it always is with me." Then he addressed his penis, "Younger brother, bring the blanket back before you lose it." Trickster took his penis in hand, and as it got softer, the blanket finally floated down. He took out the box in which he kept his penis and began to coil his member up and pack it away. Only when he had reached the tip did he finally retrieve his blanket. Trickster carried this box on his back.

Trickster once again set out on his travels. As he wandered aimlessly, he descended a slope until he came to a lake. On the opposite shore a group of pretty young women, a yųgiwi (princess) and her friends, were skinny dipping in the lake. "Ah yes," Trickster said to himself, "my chance has come — now I will get some sex." He took his member out of its box and gave it clear instructions: "My younger brother, you are to go straight for the yųgiwi and pass by the other women. Lodge right in her and no one else." Then he dropped it in the water, but it slid across the surface of the water, so Trickster called to it, "Little brother, come back! If you come up to them like that, you will scare them off." Trickster pulled his penis back and tied a stone around its neck and launched it again, but this time it dropped to the bottom of the lake, so he had to reel it back in again. Once again he tried, this time by tying a lighter stone to it, but the penis was too close to the surface and created a wake as it moved. "Come back, little brother, come back," Trickster shouted. Once he had reeled it in, he attached a stone of just the right weight, and sent it on its way again. This time his penis went right for the mark, but on its way it just barely grazed the other women. They yelled to the yųgiwi, "Get out of the water! Get out of the water, quick!" but the yųgiwi was just to slow to move and the penis lodged right in her just where Trickster wanted it. As the princess came out of the water, the penis was lodge right in her, and the other woman tugged hard to get it out, but could not dislodge it. The young women, who had no idea what had attacked their friend, ran to the village and returned with the strongest men they could find. These tried very hard to pull it out, but they could do nothing. However, one of the men said, "An old woman lives near here and she has knowledge of many things. Perhaps she can do something." So they ran off to get her. When she arrived, she immediately knew what was going on and told them, "This is Kunu, the one that they call 'Trickster.' He is having sex with her, and all we are doing is intruding." She left, but came back soon after with an awl. She straddled the penis and pushed the awl in and out several times while she sang,

Kunu, if it is you;
Pull it out,
Pull it out.

Then, unexpectedly, the penis jumped out with such force that the woman was thrown through the air. The woman was in a state of shock, but managed to get to her feet. As she stood there, Trickster laughed from the opposite bank and shouted, "You nasty old woman, why have you spoiled my fun? I was trying to have sex, but now the moment is ruined!" [1]

Commentary. The story of Trickster's legendary penis is continued in Trickster Loses His Penis.

Comparative Material. The Ponca trickster cycle has a very close parallel to the first episode of this story. Radin summarizes it as, "Ictinike wakes up to find his robe at end of penis erectus." [2]

The second episode has some resemblance to a Blackfoot trickster tale. Old Man saw a female beaver asleep on the opposite bank of a river, so he called Muskrat to tow his "lariat" (penis) across the river and implant it in her. The muskrat had a hard time navigating with this burden, as the river's current was strong. Old Man kept criticizing Muskrat, until at last Muskrat became angry. So he took the head of the lariat and embedded it in a thicket of thorns. Muskrat gave the signal, and Old Man thrust hard and ended up plowing a trail through the thorns. [3]

The Gros Ventre embed this tale within the story of the Elk's Skull (q.v.). Nix’aⁿt got his head caught inside an elk's skull and fell into a river. The current carried him down to where some young women were bathing. They thought that he was a water monster (bax’aaⁿ), but he spoke to them and reassured them that they could take him ashore. So two women pulled him to shore by his horns. As soon as he was safe, he immediately penetrated one of the girls. The people ran back to their villages and called to the mother of the girl, "Someone is defloring your daughter!" She ran there with a hammer, and when she got there, she struck him on the backside. "If you want to kill me," said Nix’aⁿt, "then hit me hard on the head." So she struck him there and the skull broke off, allowing Nix’aⁿt to run away. [4]

The Chiricahua Apache tale is similar, but does not feature water. Coyote want to have intercourse with one of the beautiful prairie dog women, so he had Gopher dig a hole under one of them. He ran his penis through the gopher holes until it came out under one of them and lodged just where he wanted it. When the woman realized what was happening, she took a rock and struck the end of his penis. That is why the foreskin goes back, they say. [5]

The very distant Shasta people have a good parallel. Once Coyote saw two girls walking down the path and wondered how he could have sex with them, so he changed himself into a salmon and plunged into the adjacent stream. The girls dove into the stream to catch the salmon, but while they were in there Coyote lodged himself into one of them. When they got out, Coyote laughed at them. Later Coyote saw some girls on the other side of the river, so he changed his penis into a long plant and sent it swimming across the river. It emerged on the other side and penetrated one of the girls. Later the girl turned around and saw the long plant lying on the ground nearby, so she hit it with her digger, whereupon Coyote let out a howl from the other side of the river. This made the girls angry, and they said, "That old Coyote has played a trick on us." [6]

Links: Trickster, The Sons of Earthmaker.

Links within the Trickster Cycle: §6. Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, §8. The Abduction and Rescue of Trickster.

Stories:featuring Trickster as a character: The Trickster Cycle, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Trickster's Warpath, Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, Lake Winnebago Origin Myth, The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Trickster Soils the Princess, Trickster, the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Meadow Lark, Soft Shelled Turtle Gets Married, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Trickster Concludes His Mission, The Abduction and Rescue of Trickster, The Elk's Skull, Trickster and the Mothers, The Markings on the Moon, The Spirit of Gambling, The Woman who Became an Ant, The Green Man, The Red Man, Trickster Takes Little Fox for a Ride, Trickster Loses His Meal, Trickster's Tail, A Mink Tricks Trickster, Trickster Loses Most of His Penis, The Scenting Contest, The Bungling Host, Mink Soils the Princess, Trickster and the Children, Trickster and the Eagle, Trickster and the Geese, Trickster and the Dancers, Trickster and the Honey, Trickster's Adventures in the Ocean, The Pointing Man, Trickster's Buffalo Hunt, Trickster Eats the Laxative Bulb, Trickster Visits His Family, The Coughing Up of the Black Hawks, The Petition to Earthmaker, Waruǧápara, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge; about Trickster's penis: Trickster Loses Most of His Penis.

Themes: Trickster wants to have sex with a princess (yųgiwi): Trickster Soils the Princess; someone talks to his own organs as though they were people: Trickster Loses Most of His Penis, Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks; a man's organ acts as though it had a will of its own: Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, Trickster's Buffalo Hunt.

Notes:

[1] Paul Radin, The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology (New York: Schocken Books, 1956) 18-20.

[2] Radin, The Trickster, 129, #12; the Ponca trickster cycle is found in James Owen Dorsey, Cegiha Texts, in Contributions to North American Ethnology (Washington, D. C.: 1890) vol. 6.

[3] Mythology of the Blackfoot Indians, compiled and translated by Clark Wissler and D. C. Duvall (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995 [1908]) Story 21, p. 36.

[4] "7. Nix’aⁿt and the Mice's Sun-dance," in Alfred Louis Kroeber, Gros Ventre Myths and Tales, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History (New York: Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, 1907) Volume 1, Part 3: 68-69.

[5] Morris Edward Opler, Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994 [1942]) 53-54.

[6] "Coyote's Amorous Adventures," in Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz (edd.), American Indian Trickster Tales (New York: Penguin-Putnam, Inc., 1998) 55-56. Essentially the same story is said to be Athabascan in Erdoes and Ortiz (edd.), American Indian Trickster Tales, 69-71.