Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-10-28
VIRGINIA FOLK LORE.
LEGENDS OF INTEREST TO ALL
STUDENTS OF SUCH SUBJECTS.

LEGENDS OF INTEREST TO ALL
STUDENTS OF SUCH SUBJECTS.
The Story of the Seven whistIcrs-The
Black Horseman, the Eerie Sunsets and
the Great snske-Legend Of the Little
Tog.
Whether, like the folk lore of Georgia,
the cotton states, that of eastern Virginia
is traceable directly back to Africa in
nearly every case, is a question. There
seems TO exist Caucasian folk lore
sprung from long residence in the beauti-
full spurs of the Blue Ridge and among
the picturesque hills and secluded valleys
which radiate and fill all the section of
the state. That the slaves eIerted per
ceptible influence on this cult there can
be no doubt. But that it in large part
originated in imaginations and supersti-
tiOns apart from them is equally un-
doubtable. This folk lore embcdies
several legends which ought TO be of in
terest to students of such subjects all the
world over.
LEGEND OF THE SEVEN wHIsTLERs.
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 upon the startled ear.
And there is always a portent of some
thing mOmentOus for good or evil, even
though they may not 'dee their weld for
weeks after the Seven Whistlers' ''call. ~
Like all pOrtents, their coming is
mostly in the gloaminG. 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
from the mountains and the twilight
shadow which falls from the heavens a
mystical significance of another world
and of the ftimsy structure Of the veil in
tervening, which is TO be found at no
/ other hour of the twenty-four.
! 1t is, then, by some lonely wood pond,
| or in some valley circled by the woods,
/ that this hush is broken by faint, far
! beat, distinct note in the air, not on earth
or in the sky overhead, taken up and re-
! peated six times and ever growing clearer
and more distinct, and finally pealing
| away with rush of wings and a sound
| of passing like that which in all the Med
| iterranean isles signaled 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
toric field of the surrender, through which
flows a 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 a neighbOr-
ing hill is a ruined cabin, said TO be the
site of what was once famous pl9nta-
ton mansion. Here, in the first cool twi-
lights of the fall, as the darkness gathers
sufficiently TO allow the lights Of the
farm houses a mile or two away TO be
| visible, the traveller or passer by may
hear the champing of n bit and the paw
ing of powerful steed. In few mo-
ments, just on the bank Of the stream, a
coal back horse is seen and strange man
in foreign costume stands by the saddle
ready to mount. whoa, sir; whoa
sir" the rider cries, whoa, SIR and
the black steed paws and champs his bit
In an instant on the hill, where stands
the ruined cabin, brilliant illumination
flares up and the windows of stately
mansion are seen all aglow in the rays OF
the dying sun which fall last upon that
height. Then the strange man raises his
head suddenly and leaps to the saddle
and in a flash the radiant mansion and
the coal black steed disappear, and all is
silent and dark. This is known to all
the gray heads for leagues around.
THE EERIE SUNSETS.
In Madison county, along the base of
Prospect mountain, the sunsets are said
always to be of a weird and surprising
grandeur. No such gorgeous iliumina-
tions of the western sky are to ne seen
anywhere in this country. Whether it
be from the peculiar natural conforma-
tiOn of the neighborhood 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 streamers
of cloud which have been crimson and
purple melt into the colder gray Of dusk,
these cloud streamers take on fantastic
shapes of living things, and the upper
ether, so high as TO be indistinct, is
twisted and moved by the convolutiOns Of
a mighty serpent and the tsil-folds undu-
late down to the horizon and lose them
selves in the forests of the mountain.
This is the Great Snake. During the re-
cent earthquake disturbances these at
mospheric and serpentine phenomena are
declared to ave been noticed in q
marked degree.
LEGEND OF THE LITTLE DOG.
There is never a boy or a girl who was
brought up in all that country side who
has not heard form 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 a puppy, but a creature
grown old and gray, which suddenly ap-
pears at dusk to truant child. At first
it is small and insignificant, even harm
less looking. AS the truant looks over
his shoulder, and fearfully begins TO
speed hOmeward, the animal grows with
the growing darkness, and whitens in
the increasing blackncss until it looms
closer and closer behind the appalled,
child in a 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 l was scared,
like many another white child, half to
death. u )hn Paul Bocock in Detroit
Free Press.