Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-10-21


superstitions apart from them is equally
uhdoubtabio. This folk lore emoodles
several legends which ought 60 be of in
terest TO students OF such subjects all the
world over. The first Oh which l have
been able to arrive at facts Is the
LEGEND OF TIRE SEVEN wTISTLERs.
Once in the life OF every man he hears
the Seven Whistlers' call. They are
strange birds on whom mortal eyes have
never rested, the whistle of whose wings
sometimes falls on the startled ear. And
there is always pOrtent OF something
momentous for good or Tor evil,
even though they may not "dree
their weird" for weeks after the
Seven Whistlers' ''can." Like all
portents, their coming is mostly in the
cleaning. For then, after all, is the
''witching hour" There is in the quiet
OF a secluded country side in the twilight
hush which comes down froIl the noun
tatns and the twilight shadow which falls
from the heavens mystical Significance
OF another world and of the flimsy struc-
ture of the veil intervening. which Is
found at no other hour OF the twenty
tour.
1t is, then, by some lonely wood pond,
or i'll some valley circled bv the woods,
that this hush is broken by faint far
peat, distinct note in the air, not on earth
or In the shy overhead, taken up and re-
peated Six times, and ever growing clearer
and more distinct, and finally peahng
away with a rush of wings and a sound o.
passing, like that which in all the Med-
terranean isles signalled the death of 1.-The
Great Pan" when Christ was born.
THE BLACK HORsEMAN.
There is "a low valley on the Appomat-
tox river, not many miles from the his
torlc fields OF the surrender, through
which flows o, gentle stream. Along its
banks are groves of oak and ash, and
farther away ON either side stretches
the rolling meadow land. On the top of
neighboring Mil rs a ruined cabin, said
to be the site OF what was once famous
cool twilights of the fail, as the darkness
gathers sufficiently TO allow the
lights OF the farm houses a mile or
two away to be" visible, the traveller
or passerby may hear the champing OF a
bit and the paving of powerful steed.
In few.mo nfeHts, }usto on the bank of the
stream, q coal;black horse is seen, and
strange maR IN, foreign costume stands by
the saddle, ready TO mount. "Wh oa, sir;
whoa. sir" the rider cries; "whoa, STRIP
and the black steed, paws and champs his
bit. In an instant on the hill, where
stands the ruined cabin, a brilliant illu-
mination flares UP and the windows of
stately mansion are seen all aglow in the
rays OF the dying sun, which fall last
upon that night. Then the strange man
raises his head suddenly and says:
Whose house is that there,
And whose house might that be,
And how came that house there
Without the leave of me ?"
And in an instant he leaps to the sad
die and in flash the radiant mansion
and the cold-black steed disappear, and
all is silent and dark. This is known to
all the gray heads for leagues around.
THE ERIE SUNSETS.
In Madison county, along the base Of
Prospect mountain, the sunsets are said
always to be of weird and SURPRISING
grandeur. No such gorgeous illumna-
tions of the western sky are to be seen
anywhere in this country. Whether 1t
be from the peculiar natural conforma-
ton Of the neighDorhoOd or the way in
which the hills to the west are shaped,
the splendor of these sunsets is famous.
AS they fade away, and the stream
ers OF cloud which have been crimson
and purple melt into the colder gray of
dusk, these cloud streamers take on fan
tastic shapes of living things, and the up
per ether, so high as to be ndIstinct, is
twisted and moved as by the commissions
of a mighty serpent, and the tail folds I'M
QulaJ6 QOWn 10 the horizon ana lose
themselves in the forests of the noun
tain. This is the Great Snake. During
the recent earthquake disturbances these
atmospheric and serpentine phenomena
are declared to have been noticed to a
marked degree.
LEGEND OF THE LITTLE DOG.
There is never boy or girl who was
brought up in all the countryside who
has not heard from nurse or colored COM
panion the legend of the Little Dog.''
1t is, as the "black mammies" always
warned their young charges, a small gray
dog, not puppy, but creature grown
old and gray, which suddenly appears at
dusk TO a truant child. AT irstitis small
and Insignificant, even harmless looking.
AS the truant looks over his shoulder,
and fearfuIly begins to speed homeward,
the animal grows with the growing dark
ness, and whitens in the increasing black
ness until it looms closer and closer be-
hind the appalled, child in great gray
shape as hideous and as terrible as the
gigantic white whale of the South seas TO
the belated islander at sea. l have often
imagined | saw the ''little white dog"
and whether L saw him or not | was
scared, like many another white chilG,
''half TO DEATH"