, 1888-05-12
FANCIES ABOUT BIRDS.
SOME OF THE QUEER SUPERSTL-
TONS OF coLoRED PEOPLE.

n writer repeats tho storieB OF Dusty
Legend TelIers-FoIk Lore Concerning
Feathered songsters-Doye, Partridge.
Robin. Jay Bird and "shIverin' Owl"
how many queer fancies the negroes
nave about birdsI To them every feath-
cred songster makes representation
either Of good or evil to befall the believer
in signs.
Dusky legend teIlers relate how the
white dove few out of the Ark and was the
first living thing to find land after the
great food. They augment the old story by
saying that on that land did the dove, for
love Of man, plant the first grain Of corn
They bless the gentle bird for giving that
strongest staff of life to the laborer, that
which they call In their quaint fancy for
personifcation' Friend John Constant,
"de good corn meal dat stands by you
constant" It was the mourning dove
who brought the world another great
blessing; with her tender bill she dug for
man the first springs To him who hears
the first doves note In the new spring
time, good or bad luck is p~ortended, as
the hearer happens to be going up or dow
a hiR when the tender complaining strikes
his ear.
a pocketful of money and a crib full of
corn at the endiof the year await the man
who. walking a level road. hears the
doves cooling. If he comply with the fol-
lowing condition: to step three steps after
hearing the first note, then to lie down
and roll over his three last tracks.
A mighty '1ove powder" is thought by
dark damsels to be made of a parched and
powdered dove'sheart. Not a few negroes
believe that troubles will follow him who
kills a dove. The mourning dove is said
to mourn for a passing soul.
CONCERNING BIRDS EGGS.
Tho partridge fears to frequent the
ground oft trod by man. hence arises the
belief that death will come to some
dweller In a cabin near which is heard the
partridge's shrill whistle. Lucky is he
who finds the nest OF the Industrious
partridge, for these are birds Eggs that
can be- eaten without fear OF evil conse-
quences
But let no person who loves home eat
the egg of the blue bird, for that egg gives
to the eater thereof an insatiate desire to
run ~away-always to run away Days
full of sunshine will invite him to wander;
days of clouds and rain will demand him
to leave the warm homo hearth; always to
slip away somewhere from familiar places
md well loved faces. Woe to him who
eats a mocking birds egg; the penalty
attached to the eating thereof Is to tell
all. an maybe mon you know" The
eater of a killdeeis egg will surely there
after break his arm
II ~ tho brirbt rastIasa 1tt4Ia ro6tp
that planted on old earth the first one Of
the many cedars that now shake their
plumes on,a thousand hills.
1t was the pert jay bird marlborough In
his bill the first grit of dirt" to the
world: whenceJhe few with 1t legend fails
to inform. For a certain space on Friday
noon. say the mammies, no jay Is to be
seen on the whole face of the earth.
Whyf They go to the under world to
carry'to the king Of hat realm a grain of
sand Whether this is,a punishment for
the bringing of that first "grit," no aunty
will tell, but she will assert most posi-
tively'that the jays do certainly leave our
world at precisely 8 o'clock on Friday
morning, and are back promptly at /
o'clock of'that same day.
LUCK A LOVER
Lucky is the dusky maid who sees a red
bird when she Is notion the lookout for
one. She must make no mentioned nav
ing'seen the pretty fellow. but discreetly
goI about her business, maxim no mira
tton at all" If this condition isAcomplied
with she will see her sweetheartfbefore the
sun Is down. If the bird seen Is bright
red. her lover will come in .happy,moodj II
pale is the color of the bird. her lover viii
show himself Ill tempered
Never bring out of a wild bird's,nest {
young one to strive torear it in q housI
where people live, for'the bird will surely
die, and no less certainly will the super
~stitious ones regard this death as a call
for some loved inmate ofsthat dwelling t
die also.
Thu rain crow cries forrrain. There are
many jolly dialect songs, about the crow.
The negroes seem to consider him quite q
smart fellow. One of them, a black one
with white feathers under his wings, Is 9
preacher, crow" Most direfuI LII, how,
ever, will follow the jewellers In q house
on whose roof a crow lights 1t is the wren
nesting under the caves that brings the
greatest good fortune to a house. Fol.
lowed by griefs and trials will be that
man who kills a wren.
Let no personsmock q ''shiverin' owl, "
for the penalty'thereto is'''dat freu fol.
Ter you" Who mocks a whtppoorwill
will have his clothes burned up. VIII
hears a whippoorwn sounding it's sweet
note In daylight will have his clothes
burned A flock of brown birds called
lair colts" twitter for a death sign.
TIL great white crane only leaves his
marshy places to bring to some household
"warnin' O. death" Great CONSERVATION
fills a house when,the crane flies over the
roof and calls down his dolorous cry OF
"Corpsel CorpseI Corpse"-Ei Shepherd
in New Orleans Times-D Democrat