Post by blackcrowheart on Aug 12, 2008 11:45:36 GMT -5
Maize Origin Myth - Winnebago
Oliver LaMère and Harold B. Shinn, Winnebago Stories (New York, Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co., 1928) 104-105. Informant: Oliver LaMère of the Bear Clan. Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 309.
When the Medicine Rite was first created by the good spirits, each of them contributed something that would help the humans overcome the evil spirits. After all the spirits had made their contributions, only then did Grandmother (Earth) come forward and speak to Hare: "Look at my breast, grandson." Then, unexpectedly, there grew from one of Grandmother's breasts a plant that no one had ever seen before. It grew immediately from her nipple into a full stalk with ripe ears of corn ready to eat. "This, grandson," said Earth, "is maize. The two-legged walkers may eat its corn forevermore."
Oliver LaMère and Harold B. Shinn, Winnebago Stories (New York, Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co., 1928) 104-105. Informant: Oliver LaMère of the Bear Clan. Paul Radin, The Winnebago Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 [1923]) 309.
When the Medicine Rite was first created by the good spirits, each of them contributed something that would help the humans overcome the evil spirits. After all the spirits had made their contributions, only then did Grandmother (Earth) come forward and speak to Hare: "Look at my breast, grandson." Then, unexpectedly, there grew from one of Grandmother's breasts a plant that no one had ever seen before. It grew immediately from her nipple into a full stalk with ripe ears of corn ready to eat. "This, grandson," said Earth, "is maize. The two-legged walkers may eat its corn forevermore."