A Woman Turns into a Rock

told by Rev. William Hamilton

"There is a Winnebago tradition that a woman carrying her child was running from her enemies, so she jumped down a steep place and was turned into a rock. And now when they pass that place they make offerings to her."1

Commentary. "offerings" — this story was presented in order to show that humans could become deities. In this case, the woman is now conceived to be the Rock Spirit that inhabits the stone.

Comparative Material. ...

Links: Rock Spirits.

Stories: mentioning Rock Spirits: The Big Stone, The Green Man, The Creation of the World, The Commandments of Earthmaker, The Seer, The Roaster, Wojijé, The Raccoon Coat, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Hare Secures the Creation Lodge, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Hare Kills Flint, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle; mentioning the Female (Stone) Spirit: The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth; The Creation of the World (v. 12).

Themes: a being is transformed into stone: The Twin Sisters, The Seer, Heną́ga and Star Girl, The Raccoon Coat.

Notes

1 James Owen Dorsey, A Study of Siouan Cults, in the Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Volume 11, 1889-1890 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1894) 361-544 [425].