When Coyote was trying to convince the Sky Nation to make him leader, he sang many songs to create fear in his rodent followers. But one of his favorites was:
Little rodents, have you heard what’s new?
Dark furred ones are trying to get you.
They’re very different, a scary crew.
They’re murderers and rapists too.
We’ll build a Magic Wall, that’s what we’ll do.
It’ll make you safe forever, that’s true
And the little rodents chante in unison:
Build the Wall!
Build the Wall!
It made them feel powerful, and safe. Oddly even a few with dark fur!
Now if you really look at it, there’s a lot that’s absolutely crazy about this. For one thing, even a small cub knows that there’s no difference between a dark furred creature and a light furred one. To a predator they both taste equally good! And Coyote has a lot of associates who are really dangerous predators. And guess which side of the wall they were going to be on? So the wall could make it harder for some prey to run and hide when they were chased by the predators.
And another thing. A real magic wall really is quite effective. It goes high, high into the sky, and deep, deep into the ground. It wraps all around you and can’t be penetrated. But it’s pretty easy for dangerous creatures to get past a not-magic wall, like the one Coyote really could build. They can burrow under it, fly over it, walk around it, or even cut through it!
It’s also a lot of work to make a wall. And that takes time away from more important activities, like gathering food, and building shelter. So the idea of a wall might sound good to some, but when you really think about it, it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
But that didn’t deter Coyote or his followers. And he used the song to be Chosen as Leader. Naturally most creatures thought he was just singing nonsense to be Chosen. But he really, really surprised the Rodent Clan leaders after the Choosing, when he actually demanded that they build the Wall. It really put them in a bad position. They knew it was a ridiculous idea, and that the Wall wasn’t really magic. But their rodent followers felt frightened, and felt the Magic Wall made them more important, and safe. Of course, the Sky Clan mercilessly made fun of the wall, and lots of the Sky Nation agreed with them.
But Coyote found the whole situation incredibly funny, and he made sure to bring it up often. It was very clever really. He could sing about “The Wall”, and all the creatures knew he was singing to the light furred ones, about fearing the dark furred ones. But he could pretend he wasn’t, because he was just singing about “The Wall”. Like a secret code, that’s not so secret.
Later they actually built some small pieces of the wall, and at night some creatures used their tiny claws to cut through it like butter. But pieces of The Wall still remain, a giant monument to Coyote’s silliness and crazy ideas.