Reading Notes: Tejas Legends Part B

Why Hummingbirds Drink Only Dew by Florence Stratton: This story kind of reminded me of the tortoise and the hare. The hummingbird is too confident and loses a bet to the heron that he can fly faster across the lake. The heron can see at night so he ends up winning the race. As a result, the hummingbird can never drink water from a lake again. I think it would be cool to retell this story with people. I could have them race across land and have one man do something clever that causes him to win.

Hummingbird

How Sickness Entered the World by Florence Stratton: Once, there was no sickness in the world. As the medicine man was dying, he told two men to go wait for the great spirit to come impart knowledge on them. As they waited, a snake appeared so they killed it and went to tell the medicine man. The snake was actually the great spirit and as a result many people in the camp were cursed and sickness would strike them and then their ancestors. This was an interesting story because it used aspects of indian culture (spirits, wigwams, medicine men) and also things that are very common in texas (snakes).