F45a1. Accidental conception by wind. .44.45.

A woman, against her will, conceives winds.

Western Ojibwa, Menominee, Seneca, Delaware.

Midwest. Western Ojibwa (Chippewa) [unbeknownst to herself, the old woman's daughter conceives from the Wind or the Sun; gives birth to triplets; does not lay the children down immediately, so the people do not walk for the first year of life; one brother is Flint; the eldest Wenebozho kills him (first murder); the second brother Nekadjivedjizhik ( He Who Walks Beyond the Sunset ) gets tired of wandering with W., makes a road of the dead; places on it Otter, Owl, two hills on the sides (these are fire-breathing snakes with their heads facing each other), a log-snake across the river (see motif H24); those who eat strawberries at the fork turn into toads or go left and disappear; those going right come to N.]: Barnouw 1972, no. 1: 13-18; Western Ojibwa [the old woman does not tell her daughter to sit in the street facing west; she sits down, becomes pregnant from the wind; the younger of the twins wants to be born first, the twins quarrel, tear their mother apart; the grandmother finds a clot of blood, covers it with bark, it turns into Nanabusha ; it freezes the sea, turns into a hare, runs across the ice to where the master of fire lives with his two daughters; the younger picks up the hare, sits it by the fire to dry; the father warns that it may be a Manitou; the hare sets fire to its fur, brings the fire to the grandmother; since then the hares are dark in the summer; the grandmother confesses that N.'s mother was killed by his brother; the brothers shoot at each other; Weasel tells N. to aim at the knot of hair, N. kills the enemy, makes him the lord of the dead]: Jones 1917, no. 1-3: 3-23; Western Ojibwa : Skinner, Satterlee 1915, no. 1a [at the beginning of time, a lonely woman tells her daughter to look only to the south while digging roots; she disobeys; a wind comes, she becomes pregnant; she gives birth to Mänäbus, Wolf, and Flint; Flint cuts his mother at birth, she dies; Wolf goes into the forest], 1b [Mother Earth finds a daughter under an overturned bowl; the four Winds enter the girl; she gives birth to twins, they tear the mother's body to pieces; the grandmother covers the pieces with a bowl; from them a rabbit emerges, it turns into Mänäbus]: 239-242; Menominee : Bloomfield 1928, no. 68 [The Creator raises the Earth from the depths, it has a human form, people are the grandchildren of the Earth; she has a daughter; The Creator wants animals to exist; the old woman does not tell her daughter to turn to the north when leaving the house; she turns, the wind enters her womb, she gives birth to Menapus("big rabbit"), then all the birds and animals; Flint comes out last, kills his mother at birth; the old woman buries her; her fire goes out; she tells M. that the owners of fire live beyond the sea; M. swims across the sea in a dugout, turns into a rabbit, is picked up by the two daughters of the blind owner of fire; they sit him by the fire to warm himself, he runs away carrying the fire, the owner chases after him; Big Hairy Fish with horns carries him across the sea; he brings the fire home]: 137-147; Hilger 1960 [there was no wind; when the woman's granddaughter grows up, she tells her not to bend toward the north; she disobeys, the wind blows for the first time, the girl becomes pregnant; gives birth to Meh-nah-pose, he taught the Indians the rituals of the Medicine Lodge Dance (held on the anniversary of the death of a member of the society and simultaneously on the occasion of the initiation of new members; the rituals are held after the leaves have fallen and before the snow has melted)]: 64.

Northeast. Seneca [people lived in the sky under a great chief; the chief's daughter fell ill; near the house there was a tree with ripening corn on it; a man told the chief that he had seen in a dream how to cure his daughter; she must be placed near the tree, and the tree must be uprooted; a young man came and said that the tree was their only source of livelihood, and they should not dig it up; and he pushed the chief's daughter into the hole formed under the roots; below there was only water and waterfowl; they picked up the woman; tired, they handed her over to a turtle; he, too, was tired; they decided that for the woman and all the others they must get earth from the bottom and put it on the turtle's back; they sent a toad; he dived and brought earth; the earth grew; the woman built herself a hut, gave birth to a daughter, who grew up; her mother told her, when digging wild tubers, always to look to the west; but she looked to the east, and therefore became pregnant by the West Wind; Twins are arguing in the womb: one wants to come out from under the mother's armpit, the other the usual way; first {through the armpit} came Flint, Othagwenda, red in color, then {the usual way} Sprout, Djuskaha, light-colored; the grandmother loved D. and hated O.; so they stuck him in a hollow far from the house; D. grew up, began to hunt with a bow and arrows; every day asked for new ones; when asked, he answered that another boy lived in the hollow, who also needed arrows; the mother went for him and brought him into the house; the brothers grew up and decided to expand the land; they went, creating forests and lakes; O. created ravines (ledges), scattered stones and made a huge mosquito; seeing that it could kill people, D. made it small; he corrected other creations of O.; and D. made big fat animals; a sugar maple from which syrup flowed; a sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) with beautiful fruits; rivers in which half the water flowed up and the other down; O. decided that life would be too easy for people; began to shake the animals, they became smaller {and skinny}; the maple tree has only a slightly sweet sap; the sycamore fruits are small and inedible; the rivers flow in one direction; as a result, the brothers began to fight and O. was killed]: Curtin Hewitt 1918, No. 98: 460-462; Seneca [the grandmother tells the eldest grandson that his father is the Wind; he comes to the Wind, receives a sack; on the way he looks inside, the animals that were there jump out, run away; at home the grandmother sees the animals, gives them names; the young man himself creates a pond of fat; the animals dive (or do not dive) into it, depending on this they are now fat or skinny; The deer says that he will bite the hunters; his upper teeth are taken out; same with other horned animals]: Beauchamp 1922: 215-216; Delawares(Mansi) [a husband in heaven is jealous of his wife for Comet; throws her into a hole in the place of the uprooted heavenly tree; falling, the woman grabs a blackberry bush, Comet gives her corn seeds, a pot, a beaver bone, a mortar and pestle; Pike offers to become her support, but the Manitou only laugh at him; Turtle becomes the support; the woman gives birth to a daughter; she becomes pregnant from the wind, gives birth to twins, they are Flint and Moskim ("hare", "rabbit"); Flint comes out through the mother's navel, killing her; the grandmother buries her daughter with her head to the west, marking the path that the souls of the dead must take]: Bierhorst 1995, No. 44: 38.