Week 10- Reading Notes A: Tejas

When the Storm God Rides In

Tejas and Other Indian Legends

Bibliography: by Florence Stratton

Collected by Bessie M. Reid

1936

Read them here

READING A:

Favorite readings

When the Storm God Rides:

-”great black-winged thunder bird which he rode like a horse over the Gulf at certain times”

-Storm God created the islands

-lived in the seas below the Gulf of Mexico

The Plant that Grows into Trees:

-interesting theory as to why mistletoe grows on trees

Mistletoe in a tree

Why the Woodpecker Pecks:

-simile: “looking just like a little man in a black coat and a red hat.”

-”And he is smart. If he sees you looking at him he stops pecking and slips around the other side of the limb or the pole and only sticks out his red head to peep at you”

-mescal plant: had little knobs that when eaten gave a magic power

-”The Indians who ate them had visions or dreams. They could see their gods and talk with their ancestors. But only those Indians who were medicine men and had the right to see strange things had the right to eat they mescal button. They warned everybody else not to touch them, or bad luck would come to them”

-everyone decided not to listen- poor little children wandered around hungry

-The Manitou “waved his hand over the Indians. They became birds. The black robes they were wearing turned into black feathers, and the red feathers they wore in their hair turned into the red head of the woodpeckers”

Woodpecker

Old Woolly Bird’s Sacrifice:

-simile: “the big flowers of the magnolia tree are like white stars scattered among the leaves”

-Woolly Bird: old Indian, gave up his life for his people

-Indians were dying of starvation

-”old heart was heavy with sadness” as people planned to leave because they were going to starve to death

-”Old Ones Not Afraid to Die”

The Cloud That Was Lost:

-clouds “float around in the sky during the day” and then “go to sleep on the tops of the [mountain] peaks”

-”they do this because they become tired while waiting in the sky to grow heavy enough to send down the rains”

-cloud ran away from brothers and sisters one day

-simile: “It had been chasing its tiny white tail like a puppy”

-rain= crying

-”wild phlox”- evening soft colors from runaway clouds