Reading Diary, Week 10 continued: Tejas Legends

Why Hummingbirds Only Drink Dew reminded me of several of the stories I read yesterday. Each of the Tejas legend stories seem to include so many parts of their culture. This one included gambling, that the Great Spirit seems to be their God, and different animals that the Tejas people seem to cherish. I also learned that hummingbirds must not drinks water and must not fly at night from reading this story. This is two facts that I did not already know about them.  There must have been many hummingbirds around for them to write about them so much. Lucky them! They are very pretty birds.

The Maiden Who Loved a Star was really sweet to me. It reminded me of Romeo and Juliet or some other forbidden love story. I did feel bad for the maiden, though, when she was turned into a tree. I thought she was going to be turned into a cool animal that could fly or something, but no. Once again, I was impressed by the creativity of the Tejas legends. When I first started reading the story, I would never know that it was going to be an explanation for how purple sage appeared in the desert.

How I imagined the star falling to the maiden
Photo by: Kenneth Lu

How Sickness Entered the World made me kind of sad. In reality, it kind of showed the downfall of human's existence. It also seemed to mirror the story of Adam and Eve and how they sinned and brought sickness and all things negative into the world. Rather than eating a fruit, the two Indians killed the messenger snake. Also, both stories included snakes. I wonder if this is because snakes are seen as deceitful? 

When the Rainbow Was Torn had a lot of personification. In my storytelling, I think it would be cool to change an inanimate object into something with actions and characteristics, like the legends did for the rainbow. I thought it was interesting how all of the bands except the yellow, red and orange got away. I understand that they chose these to stay because that's what color the flowers were. But, I also wonder why they chose the color source to be the rainbow? Maybe because it was one of the only bright things around in nature? 

These stories have intrigued me more than most of the folklore stories have. Like I have said before, the creativity and the almost randomness of how the different things in nature come to be makes me wonder about how the Tejas Indians thought. I wish I could travel back into time and be there when they told these stories in person. They seem so mystical and magical. 

Bibliography: 
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton.