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WINABOJO AND THE
BIRCH TREE
TRICKSTER OF
OJIBWAY LEGENDS
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Once when
the earth was very young, the spirit-child Winabojo was born.
His father was the wind. His mother walked the earth among
human beings, alone. She had powers she did not know.
All the earth spirits were afraid, for they knew the powers of Winabojo.
His mother disappeared into the air the instant
he was born, so Winabojo lived with the old woman he called
Grandmother. They lived alone on the shore of Lake Superior.
As he grew older, Winabojo helped his
grandmother. He brought her fish and mushrooms and wild roots.
One day, when he was a young man, Winabojo asked
his grandmother; "What is the greatest fish in the lake?"
"Do not ask me that question," she
replied, "for he is a very large fish who could do you much
harm!"
Winabojo asked, "Can he not be killed and
eaten like other fish?"
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"No,"
his grandmother replied, "for he lives deep in the water
off the edge of that cliff. No one has ever had the
wisdom to reach him. He is very powerful!"
Winabojo thought a long time about the
great fish. He climbed to the top of the cliff and sat
for many days. He stared down into Lake Superior.
Then, suddenly, one day the Wind spoke, and he climbed back
down from the cliff.
Winabojo fashioned a
great bow of ash and an arrow of cedar to kill the fish.
Then Winabojo went to his grandmother and
asked, "Grandmother; do you know of any bird whose
feathers will make this arrow fly forcefully?" |
"You are impertinent," she scolded. "The only bird is
one who lives in the sky beyond that cloud. You would have to
go there to get the feathers you want."
Winabojo had to have those feathers. He
went again to the top of the cliff to find a way to get them.
After a time, the shadow of a great eagle-like bird passed over him.
It was Thunderbird.
Winabojo, being very artful, changed into a small
rabbit. The bird swooped to kill him.
"Thunderbird, stop!" cried Winabojo.
"Am I not truly an artful little creature? Would I not
make a good playmate for your fledglings?"
Thunderbird landed next to Winabojo. Truly,
he was a clever rabbit. He said, "I will not kill you.
Instead I will bring you to my children to be their playmate."
Then Thunderbird swept Winabojo away to his nest
in the sky.
When he got to the nest, Thunderbird said to his
fledglings, "I have brought you a very clever rabbit to play
with." And he gave them the rabbit.
His wife said, "Do you not know Winabojo the
man-spirit is on the earth? Are you so foolish that you bring
him here? Why did you bring this rabbit?"
Then Winabojo pretended to sleep and he let the
fledglings do what they wanted to him. Thunderbird said,
"Is he not truly an artful creature, after all? You
mustn't worry about this rabbit."
Thunderbird and his wife were seldom at their
nest, as they were hunting food for their children. Winabojo
suddenly said to himself one day, "These brats treat me as
though I am just a plaything. Don't they know I have come to
take their feathers?"
Winabojo changed back to a human being. The
little thunderbirds shrieked. Quickly Winabojo stripped their
feathers from them.
Winabojo actually took more feathers than he
needed to make his arrow fly with force. Now the fledglings
would never fly. He tied the feathers in a bundle and jumped
away from the nest.
Because he was a man-spirit, Winabojo was not
hurt when he came to the ground. Then he heard the sky open.
It was his father the Wind.
Suddenly, there
was horrible lightning. It was the flashing eyes of the
thunderbirds. Thunder boomed over the earth. It
was the thunderbirds' voices. The thunderbirds sped at
Winabojo with their talons.
Winabojo clutched the bundle of feathers he
had stolen. He would never give it up. He ran this
way and that to get away from the thunderbirds.
Even though he was a man-spirit, Winabojo feared he would die.
The booming and flashing, the blowing and
crashing, finally caused Winabojo to tire. He grew
perplexed.
Then,
quickly, Winabojo crawled inside a hollow birch tree that had
fallen. The talons of the thunderbirds almost got him.
The hollow birch tree saved his life. |
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The thunderbirds boomed, "Our king-child, the birch tree, has
offered you its protection! Now we cannot touch you!"
And, indeed, Winabojo had fled to the protection of one of their
very own children. Now he was safe from the thunderbirds.
Their eyes flickered off toward the heavens.
Their voices faded. The Wind rolled away the clouds and
left Winabojo in a wake of tears that was rain dripping from the
leaves.
Then Winabojo stepped out of the log. He
was changed.
Winabojo said, "From now on, human beings
will find the protection of this tree useful in many ways.
Anyone standing under it will find shelter from lightning and
storms.
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"Its bark
will make their lodges.
"Their food will not spoil in it.
"And it will have many more uses. |
"But," Winabojo said, "anyone using the bark of the
birch tree will make generous offerings to it."
Thus the birch tree was blessed by Winabojo, and
he left all the feathers of his bundle inside the hollow log except
for those which he needed to fix to his arrow and kill the great
fish.
Then the man-spirit went to the shore of Lake
Superior and killed the great fish.
To this day, human beings will find the marks of Winabojo
in the tree's bark. They are little dashes. They will
also find patterns of the little thunderbirds.
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