"The people, who journey on boats, draw it down by magic every evening, cut off a suitable piece and then give it a kick so that it flies up again into the sky."—Waitz: "Anthropologie," II, 342.
The infantile nourishment comes from the mother. In
the Gnostic phantasies we come across a legend of the
origin of man which possibly belongs here: the female
archons bound to the vault of Heaven are unable, on
account of its quick rotation, to keep their young within
them, but let them fall upon the earth, from which men
arise. Possibly there is here a connection with barbaric
midwifery, the letting fall of the parturient. The assault
upon the mother is already introduced with the adventure
of Mudjekeewis, and is continued in the violent handling
of the "grandmother," Nokomis, who, as a result of the
cutting of the liana and the fall downwards, seems in
some way to have become pregnant. The "cutting of
the branch," the plucking, we have already recognized as
mother incest. (See above.) That well-known verse,
"Saxonland, where beautiful maidens grow upon trees,"
and phrases like "picking cherries in a neighbor's garden,"
allude to a similar idea. The fall downwards of
Nokomis deserves to be compared to a poetical figure in
Heine.
"A star, a star is falling
Out of the glittering sky!
The star of Love! I watch it
Sink in the depths and die.
"The leaves and buds are falling
From many an apple-tree;
