The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1891-12-31
NEW YEARS FOLKLORE.
j. III. Beadie Writes Of Some Old Tin
Indiana superstItIons-

j. ii. Beadie Writes Of Some Old Time
Indiana superstItIons.
Some say that ever 'gsinst that season CONES
Wherein our Saviour's birth Is celebrated
The bird Of dawning singeth all night long:
And then they say no spirit can walk abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets
strike,
No fairy takes. nor witch hath power 20 charm.
So hallowed and 50 gracious is the time.
So Shakespeare g. or makes Mar
cellus say and a .ao agree with him,
but for some reason / could never dis
cover, the traditions of the south and of
southern peoples generally have trans
ferred the larger share Of these gracious
influences TO New Years night.
The rare Yankee" who penetrated to
our section Of the lower Wabash valley
In the forties and fifties was amazed ut
our notions, and the New England critic
sometimes said that cur parents had been
"Africanized" in their old homes in the
border south. He meant, / suppose, that
the poor and middle class whites-the
early settlers of the Wabash region-hsd
imbibed the superstitions of the negroes;
and there must have been some truth in
it, for surely we had many beliefs that
nowhite race would have invented. ITO
watch the old year ont and the new year
in was TO see strange sights indeed.
Then the cows would fall upon
their knees and low in . strange,
: prayerful way; the chickens would rise
on their perches and stretch their winRs
as IL in prayer; other animals would
show devotion after their manner, aud
all nature would take on an appearance
! that indicated the beginning Of q new
life. II the potatoes in store had sprout-
ed, as they too often did In q warm
cellar, the sprouts would often shoot ont
sixinches in as many minutes, and If |
the ground near the smokehouse was
bare, peculiar white plants would spring
up.
81 have pulled shoots as long as nv |
arm" one good old lady told me, 'sbut |
they never would keep. They jes' dried
up and blew away before daylight"
All this and much more steadfastly /
believed, and why mott Hundreds of the
best negroes in Kentucky had testified
most positively to having seen such
things, and though our own white folk,
had never been 20 favored, they did mot
contradict the old negroes and the old
white people who had seen them. One
sight, however, / did see, and that was
the 'world in an egg"
II the sun shone bright on New Years
day the trial was made by opening the
south door Of the dwelling and setting
glass half full Of water on the floor Ia
the sunshine. Into this an egg was
broken, and as the contents slowly min
Esed with the water the bright rays of
the sun illumining the mass would
show in it men of various nations pursu-
ing their various employments. I saw
the EGG men," a few Of them, once
when was about eight years old, but
have never been able to see them since.
Philosophers may supply the explana-
ton. In those days, too, / often saw
wonderful things in the clouds, in the
Goals Of the wood fire and in the frost
upon the window-angels, fairies and
marvelously beautiful birds, lovely faces
and deep vistas Of garden and woodland
but cannot see them now.
New Years in the west and south WA
ia = soef Of supplementary Christmas
--$1xo va less rioting and more quiet
ho1nely cheer. On Christmas the ten
dency was 10 gather at the village or
country store 10 drink and sing, shoot af
. mark, wrestle and race; New Years
was the day for relatives and intimate
friends to gather and partake Of boun-
6ful dinner. It was about 1850 that
watch night" began 10 be observed
with religious services, at least in our !
and the old superstitiors
seemed TO disappear sn at once. No
Hars praying cows or revereutial rocst- 4
- - ucg0 eprouting plants or '.men In | q
- - snd no doubt the young people d
u thn& r1gion would now hear with [
nznasssnsnt that any one. no matter how
ignorant, ever stock stock In such .
thinss." J. q. RxAprx
shiloh's yitalizer is xhst you need 9
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