Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/415

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a journey to hell, "night journey through the sea," the conquering of the monster from within, signifies at the same time entrance into the mother's womb, a rebirth, the results of which are perceptible also for Mudjekeewis. As in the Zosimos vision, here too the entering one becomes the breath of the wind or spirit. Mudjekeewis becomes the west wind, the fertilizing breath, the father of winds.[7] His sons become the other winds. An intermezzo tells of them and of their love stories, of which I will mention only the courtship of Wabuns, the East Wind, because here the erotic wooing of the wind is pictured in an especially beautiful manner. Every morning he sees a beautiful girl in a meadow, whom he eagerly courts:

"Every morning, gazing earthward,
Still the first thing he beheld there
Was her blue eyes looking at him,
Two blue lakes among the rushes."

The comparison with water is not a matter of secondary importance, because "from wind and water" shall man be born anew.

"And he wooed her with caresses,
Wooed her with his smile of sunshine,
With his flattering words he wooed her,
With his sighing and his singing,
Gentlest whispers in the branches,
Softest music, sweetest odors," etc.

In these onomatopoetic verses the wind's caressing courtship is excellently expressed.[8]