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Before the world, the South Wind, and the North Wind and the West Wind and the East Wind, dwelt together in the far north in the land of the ghosts. They were brothers.
The North Wind was the oldest. He was always cold and stern. The West Wind was next oldest. He was always strong and noisy. The East Wind was the middle in age and he was always cross and disagreeable. The South Wind was the next to the youngest and he was always pleasant.
With them dwelt a little brother, the Whirlwind. He was always full of fun and frolic. The North Wind was a great hunter and he delighted in killing things. The South Wind delighted in making things. The West Wind was the helper of his brother the South Wind and sometimes he helped his brother the North Wind. The East Wind was lazy and good for nothing. The little Whirlwind never had to do anything so he played all the time and danced and made sport for his brothers.
After a long time a beautiful being fell from the stars. Her hair was like the light and her dress was red and green and white and blue, and all the colors; and she had decorations and ornaments of all colors.
As she was falling, she met the five brothers and begged them to give her some place to rest. They took pity on her and invited her into their teepee. When she came into the teepee, everything was bright and pleasant and all were happy, so all the four brothers wanted her, each for his woman. So each asked her to be his woman.
She told them that she was pleased with their teepee and would be the woman of the one who did that which pleased her the most. So the North Wind went hunting and brought to her his game. But everything he brought turned to ice as soon as he laid it before her. So that when he had laid his presents before her, the teepee was dark and cold and everything was dreary.
Then the West Wind brought his drum and sang and danced before her, but he made so much noise and disturbed things so much that the teepee fell down and she had hard work to put it up again.
Then the East Wind sat down by her and talked to her so much foolishness that she felt like crying. Then the South Wind made things for her and they were all beautiful so that she was happy and the teepee was warm and bright. So she said she would be the South Wind's woman.
This made the North Wind very angry for he claimed that he was the oldest and should have the being by right. But the South Wind would not give her up. So the North and South Winds quarreled all the time about her and finally the South Wind said to his woman that they would go away so that they might live in peace.
They started to go away but the North Wind tried to steal her.
When she found out what the North Wind was trying to do, she took off her dress and spread it out and got under it to hide. So when the North Wind came to the dress, he thought that he had found the beautiful being and he embraced it but everything on it grew hard and cold and icy. He heard the South Wind coming and he fled back to his teepee.
The South Wind found only a cold hard thing like his woman's dress but he could not find the woman so he went back to look for her. When he had gone, the North Wind came again and said to the woman, "I know you are under this dress and I am coming under there also."
So he went to the edge of the dress, but the woman spread it out farther that way. Then he went to the edge at another place and she spread it that way. He kept going from place to place and she kept spreading her dress wider and wider until it became so wide that there was no end or side left.
Then he heard the South Wind coming again and he ran away to his teepee, and when the South Wind came again he examined the dress and found that it was truly his woman's dress and then he knew that the North Wind had embraced it.
He called loudly for his woman and she answered him that she was under the dress but that she had stretched it so wide to keep away from the North Wind, that there was neither a side nor an end to it, so she could not get out from under it.
Then the South Wind followed on the trail of the North Wind until he came to the teepee where he found him boasting to the other brothers of what he had done.
The South Wind went in and reproached his brother and they quarreled and finally fought and the North Wind was about to conquer his brother the South Wind, when the West Wind helped the South Wind and they conquered the North Wind.
He could not be killed so they bound his feet and hands and left him in the teepee.
The other brothers all sided with the South Wind and determined to live no longer with the North Wind. So the West Wind went to live where the sun sets and the East Wind went to live where the sun rises and the South Wind went to the opposite of where the North Wind's teepee is, as far as he could go.
The little Whirlwind was too small to have a teepee by himself so he went to live with the South Wind the most of the time, but he was to live with the West Wind sometimes. But the East Wind was so lazy and disagreeable that he would not even visit him. While they were leaving, the North Wind defied them all and told them that he would forever combat them, that he would break his bonds and go on the war path against each of them.
He said to the South Wind, "I know where your woman is. I know what covers her and hides her. When I loosen my bonds, I will go and try to get her. I have destroyed the beauty of her dress. If I do not get her, I will again destroy its beauty. I will fight you forever for her."
The South Wind came again to his woman's frozen dress and he called her and she answered but she could not come from under it, neither could he go below it, for it was spread so wide that there was no end to it.
So he journeyed to his brothers' teepees and they came and helped him and they warmed the dress but it still was ugly and like a dead thing. When his woman found that he was warming her dress, she thrust bright ornaments through it and it was again beautiful with green and red and blue and all colors.
So the three brothers, the South Wind, the West Wind, and the East Wind continued on the dress and kept warming it; only the East Wind was so lazy that he would only work occasionally and then in the evening.
Little Whirlwind was too small to do much work but he would dance about over the dress and throw things in the air and try to keep the South Wind from grieving over his loss.
The South Wind grew weary with grief and work and went to his teepee to sleep and left only the West Wind to guard the dress.
Then the North Wind freed himself and came and he and the West Wind fought furiously and the North Wind was about to conquer him and had destroyed all the ornaments on the dress and made it hard and cold again.
When North Wind came, little Whirlwind fled to South Wind's teepee to tell him. But he found South Wind asleep and could not awake him.
He tried and tried again and again but could not awaken him so he ran all the way to the teepee of the East Wind who was sitting looking on at the fight between his brothers, intending to take sides with whichever should win.
Little Whirlwind persuaded East Wind to go with him and awake South Wind. When South Wind was told what had happened, he came in a great rage to the help of his brother, the West Wind and they fought all over the dress, but finally North Wind was driven back to his teepee.
But he would slip away at night and embrace the dress and make it hard and cold until he was bound again.
Then the South Wind and West Wind had all their work of warming the dress to do over again and the woman under the dress had to push the ornaments through it again.
Thus began the warfare between the brothers which has lasted ever since, to the present time.
The End
Wooing Wohpe
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore....but let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Kahlil Gibran
The windmill originated in Iran in AD 644. It was used to grind grain.
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