Reading Notes: Tejas Legends Part A

The Plant that Grows in Trees

Plot: Mistletoe used to grow on the ground like other plants until a bird moved it to the trees. A thunderbird could not find any berries so it came down to the ground and ate the berries from the mistletoe. After eating, the bird thanked the plant. The mistletoe was very sad and told the bird he would die anyway since he is the only plant with berries all year long. The thunderbird took pity on the plant and carried it up to the mesquite tree and placed it there. The plant was grateful but was saddened that he would survive and his seeds would fall to the ground where they would grow and be eaten by animals. To this, the thunderbird said the seeds would stick to the tree and would grow in the trees. In this way, the thunderbird saved the mistletoe from other animals and now mistletoe grows on trees.

Lesson: The Tejas legends which I read for Part A had a lot of origin stories like the one I described. A lot of the stories give background or reasoning for animals and/or natural phenomena. Some of the stories have a morality lesson, this one did not. I liked it because it was just a fun story about why mistletoe grows in trees.

Ideas: To write a story similar to this I would probably focus on a different plant origin story. Maybe a reason why ivy clings to buildings. In this way, I would keep the general idea of the story type but make it completely my own.

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

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