The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-06-21

=
pretty name may be best learned by
reading the opening lines of a poem
addressed to her, when she was
young and charming" by a sable adj
mirer ofdnusual erudition
81 Oh, lubly liable.
Yon makes me so mizzablei
Ineberis happy 'cep' when You Is vizza-
BILE
She was what Is called a "Gullah
niger" that l., she was born ia Al
rica, and was brought TO this coun-
try when child. She always main
tained that she was the daughter
of a King, and had been kidnapped
by mistake, nobody ever had the
cruelty to suggest to her that per-
haps her papa had possessed su-
perhuity of offspring, and had been
charmed to part with score or so
on favorable terms. In proof of her
royal birth she was fond of exhibit
ing pair of broad bone bracelets.
which, fitting loosely about her
wrists, would not pass over her
hands, and also necklace of teeth, F"
which always encircled her regal
throat. About these teeth she made
various statements-at one time
had been extracted from the jaws of
warriors slain in battle by her val
orous sire; again, from tiger which
had fallen victim to the same
mighty hand. They were shapeless
bits of some hard substance, not
much like the grinders of man or
beast, but they were held in the ut
most reverence by all the negroes,
one of whom coDfded to me the
popular belief on the subject:
Does You tink dem dar teef Of
Nanny Izzahei's is teef2 Nav, sab,
dem amt no teef-eculdn't nobody
chaw muffin wild dem pinted tings.
I'll tell you what dey is'-and here
his voice sank mysteriouslv as if
half afraid to utter his thoughts
..dey is dc debirs toe-naiis. Amt
YOU neber heerd dat song bout
Did you eber, eSer, ebc- see the debil. deb
il, debil
A-scratchin' up de grabble wid has long toe
nails7'
Arter while dev gifts SO long he's
'bleeged ter cut 'em off, an den he
lib 'eln ter NANNY IZzable fer ter
trick wild. Golly hope she won't
neber get wrarthy 'ginst me-" and
he covered at the very thought.
Nanny Isabel's personal appear
ance was very striking. Although
of great age, she still carried her
self perfectly erect, and her small
trim figure was always clothed in n
scantv black woollen dress,
short enough TO expose another
token of her royal blood-tiny
feet of beautiful shape. Upon
her head a turban, disclosing at
each temple tuft OF snowy wool.
Her skin was intensely black, and a
pair of heavy white overhanging
eyebrows gave a singularly uncanny
expression to her small brilliant
eyes and the big silver rings which
dangled from her ears put the fin
ishing touch to an appearance as
weird and striking as any witch
oman" could have desired.
Woe to the unlucky individual
who offended this embodiment of
magic and the black-art, or for whose
discontinue anybody would pay
her good feel His children would
begin to pine away, his ''craps"
would fail, his hogs grow lean, and
his fence tumble down, and he him
self be subjected to aches and pains
iinnumerable, and perhaps even
death itself, unless the "cunlern was
removed by a timely bonus to the
dreaded witch omen" This be-
ing the general belief, there is small
wonder Nanny Isabel. whose rule
for money-making certainly worked
both ways, should gradually have
become the Crnsus as well as the
oracle of the neighborhood. She
was also much esteemed for herskill
in ''doctrin',' and WAS as careful to
keep secret the ingredients of her