From the second segment of the Tejas tales, I particularly
enjoyed the story of how sickness came into the world. It is an interesting
tale, and to me it is really cool learning about how the natives of East Texas
believed different things to have occurred.
So in the story, there was an old medicine man and a Great
Spirit. The old medicine man was dying, and the Great Spirit wanted him to
share his wisdom with his tribesman. In order to do so, the medicine man was
supposed to meet a messenger under a certain tree in the woods. Unfortunately,
the medicine man could not make the appointment as he was getting much more
sick. He decided to send two of his tribe folk to meet the messenger. So the
two young men went out into the woods to meet whoever this messenger was. The
young men ventured out into the forest to the designated tree. They waited a
short time when a snake arrived slowly to the tree. In fear, the men took to
sticks in order to beat the snake to death. What they didn’t know was that
snake was the messenger sent by the Great Spirit. The men waited a long time
for a person to arrive, but nobody came to see them. They then traveled back to
the medicine man to update him on their travels. When they told them medicine
man that nobody came to see them, but they killed a snake, the medicine man was
deeply saddened. He said that the snake was the messenger and the tribe was in
trouble because the Great Spirit would be angry.
That night, another snake came to the tribe and laid eggs
all over the village. Each egg hatched a new illness or disease, and that is
how sickness came to mankind.
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| Texas map - Wikipedia |
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends by Florrence Stratton (1936)
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