A Gust of Wind

A Ojibwa Legend

Before there was a man, two women, an old one and her daughter were the
only humans on earth. The old woman had not needed a man in order to
conceive. Ahki, the earth, also wa like a woman–female–but not as she
is now, because trees and many animals had not yet been made.

Well, the young woman, the daughter, took her basket out one day to go
berrying. She had gathered enough and was returning home when a sudden
gust of wind lifted her buckskin dress up high, baring her body.
Geesis, the sun, shone on that spot for a short moment and entered the
body of the young woman, though she hardly noticed it. She was aware of
the gust of wind but paid no attention.

Time passed. The young woman said to the old one: “I don’t know what’s
wrong with me, but something is” More time passed. The young woman’s
belly grew bigger, and she said: “Something is moving inside me. What
can it be?”

“When you were going berrying did you meet anyone?” the old woman asked.

“I met nobody. The only thing that happened was a big gust of wind
which lifted my buckskin dress. The sun was shining.”

The old woman said: “I think you’re going to have a child. Geesis, the
sun, is the only one who could hav done it, so you will be the mother
of a sun child.”

The young woman gave birth to two boys, both manitos,supernaturals.
They were the first human males on this earth–Geesis’s sons, sons of
the sun.

The young mother made cradleboards and put the twins in these hanging
them up or carrying them on her back, but never letting the babies
touch the earth. Why didn’t she? Did the Old Woman tell her not to?
Nobody knows. If she had put the cradleboards on the ground, the babies
would have walked upright from the moment of their birth, like deer
babies. But because their mother would not let them touch earth for
some months, it now takes human babies a year or so to walk. It was
that young woman’s fault.

One of the twins was named Stone Boy, a rock. He said: “Put me in the
fire and heat me up until I glow red hot.” They did, and he said: “Now
pour cold water over me.” They did this also. That was the first sweat
bath. The other boy, named Wene-boozhoo, looked like all human boys. He
became mighty and could do anything; he even talked to the animals and
gave them their names.