Iktome Has A Bad Dream - Lakota Once in the middle of the night, Iktome woke up in a cold sweat after a bad dream. His friend Coyote, who was visiting, noticed something wrong. "Friend, what's the matter," he asked. "I had a very bad dream," said Iktome. "What did you dream of?" "I dreamed I saw a very pretty winchinchala about to take a bath in the stream." "It doesn't sound like a very bad dream," said Coyote. "This girl was taking her clothes off. I saw her naked. She had a very fine body." "My friend, decidedly this is not a bad dream." "I dreamed I was hiding behind some bush at quite a distance from her. As I watched her, my penis began to grow. It grew exceedingly long. It was winding toward her like a long snake." "There's nothing wrong with this dream." "My penis was like a long, long rope. It went all the way over to that girl. It went into the water. It touched her." "Kanji, cousin, let me tell you, I wish I had such a dream." "Now, my friend, the tip of my penis entered that girl. She didn't even notice it at first." "Kola, I'm telling you this is a fine dream." Then my penis entered that girl all the way. She seemed to like it." "This is as good a dream as I ever heard of, my friend." "Just at that moment I heard a great noise. I had been so excited in my dream that I hadn't noticed a team of horses pulling a big wagon. It was right on top of me, a wasichu's-a white man's-wagon. It was coming at a dead run, and the white man was whipping his horses. This wagon was very heavy, my friend, it had heavy wheels of iron. It was going between me and that girl..." "Friend, you were right. This is indeed a very bad dream," said Coyote. Told in a bar at Winner, South Dakota, 1969, and recorded by Richard Erdoes. Also From American Indian Myths and Legends, Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, editors. Copyright © 1984 by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc.