Indian mythology -- North America -- Juvenile literature; Indians of North America -- Folklore -- Juvenile literature
“I will get the best of Shingebis,” said Kabibonokka, and so one
morning he went to Shingebis’ tepee. And Shingebis asked him to eat
with him, and he gave him a meal of fish. And Kabibonokka ate
greedily. But the warmth of Shingebis’ tepee was too great for him,
and he had to go away. As he left he tried to put out the tepee fire,
but Shingebis blew upon it and it burned more brightly, so that
Kabibonokka had to hasten. In revenge he froze the waters more deeply,
but Shingebis only laughed, for no weather was too cold for him to
find fish for his dinner.
But the Indians did not love Kabibonokka, for he was cold and cruel.
Shawondasee was not like either of his brothers. He was fat and lazy.
He loved to lie upon green banks under shady trees. He loved the sweet
flowers, and the warmth of the South Land. He was far too lazy to send
strong winds such as came from the North Land. His breezes were soft
and traveled slowly, and they were sweet with the perfume of southern
groves and meadows.
Shawondasee, like his brother Wabun, saw a beautiful maiden that he
loved. Do you remember the story? Her hair was of golden yellow, and
she nodded and swayed in the breeze. Her home was in the meadows, and
Shawondasee looked for her day by day, and wafted sweet odors and fair
flowers to her, and he won her love, even as Wabun won the love of the
prairie maiden. But he was too sluggish to go himself to win her, and
to bring her to his home in the South Land. Instead he said to
himself each morning, “To-day I will go and seek the golden-haired
maiden, and bring her to my home,” but each day he was too indolent.
The days went by, and at last the golden hair of the maiden turned
silvery white, and when Shawondasee saw this he heaved a great sigh,
so great a sigh that it reached even to the maiden, and lo, all the
silver white of her hair was scattered over the meadow!
So Shawondasee still lives alone in the South Land, and sends gentle
sighing breezes to the meadows of the North.
Transcriber’s Note
Minor punctuation errors have been repaired.
Pukwudjee was also spelled as Puckwudjee in the table of contents and
illustration captions. These have been amended to Pukwudjee for
consistency with the story _The Pukwudjee and the Morning Star_.
On page 15, be amended to he--... but neither could he break ...
The list of other books by the author and the frontispiece have been
moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved
where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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