Book excerpt: Texas is a land of legends and folktales. Some of them are based on characters like Pecos Bill, Bigfoot Wallace, and Davy Crockett - loud, outgoing, bigger-than-life "daytime" kinds of people. Others concern themselves with mysterious, shadowy things: giant, footless birds, river spirits, and phantom lights. These ghost stories are told in whispers. Perhaps to make children behave or adults change their way of living and have become interwoven with the real-life historical happenings and characters of Texas to the point of doubt in some instances as to what is real and what is the child of overactive imaginations. As is the case with all folklore, they are told in many different versions. These have be-come a part of the heritage of Texas folklore.