Reading Notes: Tejas Legends Part B

How Sickness Entered the World

(Ladder Snake from Wikipedia)

Plot: There used to be no sickness in the world. Instead, everyone lived long healthy lives until it was time to meet the Great Spirit. There was an old medicine man who heard much from the Great Spirit and was widely regarded. He was getting very old and was too tired to meet the Great Spirit and asked two young men to meet the Great Spirit's messenger for him. The two men agreed and while they were waiting for the messenger a large snake approached. Frightened of the snake the men beat it to death. They waited and no messenger came. They went back to the old man and told him what had happened. The old man was dismayed for he knew the snake had been the messenger. When he told the men they had killed the messenger they became afraid and moved the body to another tribe's camp. Over and over men moved the snake's body from camp to camp. The snake's mate was enraged and laid an egg at each camp which the body had been. In each egg was a sickness. This is how sickness came into the world.

Lesson: Much like in the Part A readings, the stories all focused on the origin of natural elements. I chose this story to write about because I thought the origin of illnesses was a very interesting story. The lesson here seems to be to respect nature since it is the killing of the snake which brings illness into the world.

Ideas: I don't know that I would be able to come up with a more unique explanation for illnesses on my own; therefore, I would just do a straight retelling of this tale.

Story Source: This was from When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton