Shawondasee From

: The Myth Of Hiawatha

THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE ODJIBWAS.





Mudjekewis and nine brothers conquered the Mammoth Bear, and obtained

the Sacred Belt of Wampum, the great object of previous warlike

enterprise, and the great means of happiness to men. The chief honor of

this achievement was awarded to Mudjekewis, the youngest of the ten, who

received the government of the West Winds. He is therefore called

Kabeyun, the fathe of the winds. To his son, Wabun, he gave the East;

to Shawondasee, the south, and to Kabibonokka, the north. Manabozho

being an illegitimate son, was left unprovided. When he grew up, and

obtained the secret of his birth, he went to war against his father,

Kabeyun, and having brought the latter to terms, he received the

government of the Northwest Winds, ruling jointly with his brother

Kabibonokka the tempests from that quarter of the heavens.



Shawondasee is represented as an affluent, plethoric old man, who has

grown unwieldy from repletion, and seldom moves. He keeps his eyes

steadfastly fixed on the north. When he sighs, in autumn, we have those

balmy southern airs, which communicate warmth and delight over the

northern hemisphere, and make the Indian Summer.



One day, while gazing toward the north, he beheld a beautiful young

woman of slender and majestic form, standing on the plains. She

appeared in the same place for several days, but what most attracted

his admiration, was her bright and flowing locks of yellow hair. Ever

dilatory, however, he contented himself with gazing. At length he saw,

or fancied he saw, her head enveloped in a pure white mass like snow.

This excited his jealousy toward his brother Kabibonokka, and he threw

out a succession of short and rapid sighs--when lo! the air was filled

with light filaments of a silvery hue, but the object of his affections

had for ever vanished. In reality, the southern airs had blown off the

fine-winged seed-vessels of the prairie dandelion.



"My son," said the narrator, "it is not wise to differ in our tastes

from other people; nor ought we to put off, through slothfulness, what

is best done at once. Had Shawondasee conformed to the tastes of his

countrymen, he would not have been an admirer of yellow hair; and if

he had evinced a proper activity in his youth, his mind would not have

run flower-gathering in his age."