_Ojibwa_
Once a girl told her father to put his wooden dish before the fire
upside down and look under it every morning for five mornings. Then
she went to live in the sun.
The father did as he was told. On the first morning he looked under
the upturned dish, and there sat Nenebuc. The next morning he looked
under again, and there sat Nenebuc’s brother with him. So he did for
the five days. Nenebuc and his four brothers had all come to earth
to live. Then the old man picked up the dish and put it away.
Now one brother had horns on his head. Grandfather said to him, “You
can’t stay here; you go west!” and he sent him out to the edge of
the Darkening Land. Then he sent another brother to the east and one
to the north and one to the south. Nenebuc stayed with his
grandfather.
Now one summer Nenebuc could not fish during the whole summer
because of the high winds. The people almost starved and Nenebuc
became very angry. His anger was against West Wind for blowing so
much. West Wind blew all the time—blew hard.
Nenebuc said to his grandfather, “I am going west. I’ll make West
Wind cease blowing in this way.”
Grandfather said, “But don’t kill him. Tell him to let the wind blow
awhile, and then stop. Then everything will be all right.”
“I’ll be back soon,” said Nenebuc. “And I’ll end this constant
wind.”
So Nenebuc went away. He went toward the Darkening Land, and there
he found his brother. Now this was the brother with the two horns,
and he was not friendly toward Nenebuc. He refused to stop the
blowing of West Wind, and at last they fought about it. Nenebuc
hammered his brother hard with a club and at last broke one of his
horns. Then he said, “Don’t blow so hard any more. Grandfather and
all the people will starve if the wind always blows so hard.” Then
he went home.
So things went much better. Nenebuc went fishing and found it was
very calm, with only a little puff of wind now and then. All the
winds stopped blowing, because West Wind had warned the other
brothers that Nenebuc would come and fight with them if they did
not.
After a while things went badly again. There was no wind at all and
the water became ill-smelling, and bad-tasting. People could not
drink it. Fish could not live in it. Grandfather said, “We must have
some wind or the people will die. Did you kill West Wind?”
“Oh, no,” said Nenebuc. “But I’ll have to go and see him again.” So
he went again toward that Darkening Land where West Wind dwelt.
“I came to tell you,” he said to his brother, “that we must have
some wind once in a while. It must not be a dead calm like this, but
we don’t want too much wind. It spoils the fishing.”
So now the winds blow as they should, because West Wind told the
other three brothers. Sometimes it is calm, and people go fishing;
and sometimes it is windy.