Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-12-10
ALlIeAroas IN THE BAHAMAS.
Drifting Hundreds Of Miles I'm the Ocean
Currents-Curious supsrstitions.

Drifting Hundreds Of Miles in the Ocean
Currents-Curious supsrstitions.
Catesby, in his Natural History Of
Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Isl
ands," published about a century ago,
speaks of having seen alligators on the
island of Andres in this group. At
present there are none, and, with the OBJ
ject of finding out II there was any ira
dition current bearing upon the subject
made inquiries through the medium OF
The Nassau Guardian. In answer to my
questions. lately received from the rec
tor of Inagua, at the extreme southeast OF
the group, letter, in which he men,
tions that stories OF allegators having
been drifted on logs Of mahogany, and
thrown up on the shores OF the island,
are common. but that he had not been
able to verify tlem. However, a few
days previous to the date of the letter,
while on visit to one of the settlements,
Mr.. de Glauville. the rector, was shown
the skin Of an alligator eight feet long
from tip TO tip, which had been shot on
shore a day or two before by a man
whose name is given. Many logs Of ma
hogany had been cast up on the shores
of Inagua about that time; but the alli-
gator had not been observed to land,
and had been seen on shore several times
before il was shot.
There seems, however, to be no rea-
sonable doubt that the alligator was
drifted by the current from the south
east to Inagua on a log of mahogony
from San Domingo, the nearest place in
which alligators are found. This means
that it travelled distance of from 100
to 80 miles. With regard to the occur.
renee of alligators on Andres. Catesby
was q very accurate observer, and there
seems to be no reason for doubling his
statement. These aligators would ap-
pear to have been carried ON driftwood
from the northwest coast of Cuba, a
distance OF 300 miles by the gulf stream,
and cast on the edge of the Great Ba-
hama bank, whence local currents,
aided by the wind, might have carried
them TO the west coast of Andres. The
absence of traditions ON the sub ject may
be owing 10 the fact that the present
inhabitants of Andros are principally
descendants of persons who settled
there at apcriod subsequent to Catesby S
visit.
While on the subject of Andres, may
l be allowed to mention two rather curl
Gus superstitions current among the in
habitants of that interesting island? The
interior Of the northern part Of the ISL
land consists of swamps and lakes, inter
spersed with patches of rocky ground on
which the Bahama pine Up. Bahamensis)
grows thickly. The negroes have a
great dislike to entering these pine
woods alone, or even in small compa-
nies, for they say that peculiar race of
malevolent being, called little people,
inhabit the trees. These creatures are
said to be like tiny men covered with
hair. They sit on the pine boughs. and
IL a man notices them and points them
out to his companions, the whole
party is rendered immovable for day
and night; but, if fire is thrown at the
little people," they disappear without
doing any harm.
The other superstition also relates to
the pine woods. Creatures like enor-
nous hairy men, called by the negroes
"Yayhoos," are said to march about the
woods in Schools" the largest coming
first: and when dey cotch you dey tear
you" These beings are much more
dreaded than the little people," 1t looks
as If their name had been given by some
travellers familiar with -Gulliver's Trav.
els" and struck with the resemblance
between them and the terrible creatures
of Swift's imagination.
Both of these superstitions would ap-
pear to be traditionsof the land from
which the negroes originally came. The
little people" are probably recollection
of the small aboreal monkeys. while the
"Yayhoos" represent the gorillas of west
Africa.-John Gardiner in Science.