This story has many variations. The following version is notable
because Stone Boy, (Brule legend) sometimes conceived when his mother
swallows a pebble, appears in creation legends from several Plains tribes.



*****

Before there was a man, two women, an old one and her daughter, were
the only humans on earth. The old woman had not needed a man in order to
conceive. Ahki, the earth, also was like a woman - female - but not as
she is now, because trees and many animals had not yet been made. Well,
the young woman, the daughter, took her basket out one day to go
berrying. She had gathered enough and was returning home when a sudden gust
of wind lifted her buckskin dress up high, baring her body. Geesis, the
sun, shone on that spot for a short moment and entered the body of the
young woman, though she hardly noticed it. She was aware of the gust of
wind but paid no attention.

Time passed. The young woman said to the old one: "I don't know what's
wrong with me, but something is." More time passed. The young woman's
belly grew bigger, and she said: "Something is moving inside me. What
can it be?" "When you were going berrying, did you meet anyone?" The old
woman asked. "I met nobody. The only thing that happened was a big gust
of wind which lifted my buckskin dress. the sun was shining." The old
woman said: "I think you're going to have a child. Geesis, the sun, is
the only one who could have done it, so you will be the mother of a sun
child."

The young woman gave birth to two boys, both *manitos*, -
supernaturals. They were the first human males on this earth - Geesis's sons, sons
of the sun. The young mother made cradleboards and put the twins in
these, hanging them up or carrying them on her back, but never letting the
babies touch the earth. Why didn't she? Did the Old Woman tell her not
to? Nobody knows. If she had put the cradleboards on the ground, the
babies would have walked upright from the moment of their birth, like
deer babies. but because their mother would not let them touch earth for
some months, it now takes human babies a year or so to walk. It was that
young woman's fault.

One of the twins was Stone Boy, a rock. He said: "Put me in the fire
and heat me up until I glow red hot." They did, and he said: "Now pour
cold water over me." They did this also. That was the first sweat bath.
The other boy, named Wene-boozhoo, looked like all human boys. He became
mighty and could do anything; he even talked to the animals and gave
them their names.



- Told by David Red Bird in New York City, 1974.