The Jackal, Fox, and Coyote in Myths, Mythology, and Folklore

Foxes in Asia are symbols of marital fidelity, and the vixen is also a icon of maternal love. Early Chinese writings on the sanctity of mar riage often invoke the model of the vixen in urging mothers not to practice female infanticide. But in their dealings with human beings, foxes are not necessarily bound by the same loyalties. As shape shifters, they often assume the form of beautiful women to seduce men. They frequently carry out their seductions to draw the life force from men, yet sometimes they truly fall in love with their partners. While they may fool human beings, fox maidens are sometimes recognized by other animals. They can also be identified because they do not leave any reflection in a mirror or otherwise show their true vulpine countenances.

Among the earliest recorded stories about these shape shifters is “Jenshih, the Fox Lady,” written in China by Shen Chi-chi around the end of the seventh century A.D. A poor soldier named Cheng Liu once saw a lovely lady, Jenshih, walking through the streets and gallantly offered her his donkey as a mount. They fell in love, and one day Jenshih confessed to him that she was truly a fox, but she offered to remain with him in human form if he would not reject her on that account. On his acceptance, she not only proved to be a loving wife but also brought him prosperity by managing his affairs with tact and skill. At the marketplace one day, however, some dogs caught scent of her. Jenshih immediately fell to the ground, assumed the form of a vixen, and began to run. Cheng Liu followed as best he could but was unable to save her from the hounds. More than anything else, the fox maiden in Asia represents the female realm, enticing and frightening men through its secrets. Among the few unequivocally benign foxes in Asian lore are the messengers of Inari, the Japanese god of rice, who himself is often depicted as a fox.

Much like Renard the Fox, the coyote of folklore is both a sage and a buffoon. The biggest difference, perhaps, is that the coyote of Native American legend is far more of a cosmic figure than any of the foxes or jackals of folklore, at least since ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Known simply as Coyote, his (the folkloric coyote is invariably male) vocation is divine play rather than social satire. His gifts are almost endless, but they are usually flawed. According to the Zuni Indians, Coyote and Eagle once stole the sun and moon in a box from the world of spirits so that there would be light, but Coyote opened the box out of curiosity. The heavenly bodies then flew away, so there is winter as well as summer. The Klamath tell how Coyote won fire from Thunderer by cheating at dice. The Pueblo Indians report that Coyote once helped a great magician to make human beings of clay and then bring them to life by baking them in an oven. Unfortunately, most people were flawed because Coyote took them out of the oven either too early or too late. Coyote is also widely credited with bringing death into the world. It should surprise nobody that the European legends of Renard and the Native American myths of Coyote have blended in the tales told in the pueblos of Mexico and the American Southwest.

Capitalist society always loves tricksters, and Coyote remains very popular today. Some Indians have complained that white interpreters of their traditions emphasize the undignified and amoral aspects of Coyote at the expense of his holy qualities. One inheritor of that tradition is Wile E. Coyote, a cartoon character who entertains people with his fanatic, but usually futile, pursuit of a bird called Road Runner. Wile often ends up falling off a cliff or being run over by a car. At first he might appear to be too much of a loser to be a successor to the Native American trickster. On the other hand, whether Coyote won or lost was always less important than that he always survived, and that is something that Wile does remarkably well.