The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1892-01-08

sAASSo VI SoLle IN III
Indiana Superstitions.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our S%aviour's birth is celebrated,
Tho 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 powcrt to charm.
30 Eallowed and so gracious is the time.
SO Shakespeare says, or makes Mar
celius say and Horatio 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 at
onrnotions, and the New England critic
sometimes said that our parents had been
"Africanized" in their old homes in the
border south. He meant, l suppose, that
the poor and middle class whites-tbe
early settlers of the Wabash resion-hal
lmblbed the superstitions Of the negroes:
and there must have been some truth in
it, for surely we had many beliefs that
no white race would have invented. .sro
watch the old year out and the new wear
in was to see strange sights indeed.
Ihen the COWS would fall UPON
5sh.eir knees and low in a strange.
~pr;lyrful way; the chickens would rise
on their ierches and stretch their wings
as if in praSer; other animals would
show devotion after tt3,teiT manner. and
all nature would take on an appearance
that indicated the beginning of a new
life. If the potatoes in store had sprout-
ell. rs they too often did in a warm
cellar, the sprouts would often shoot out
slSinches i'll as many minutes, and if
the g.ound near the smokehouse was
bare, peculiar white plants would surinr
up.
II have pulled shoots as long rs nv
ARM one good old lady told me, 'but
they never would keep. They ,ies' dried
mp and blew away before daylight"
= All this and much more l steadfastly
believed, and why not? Hundreds of the
best negroes in Kentucky had testified
most positively to having seen such
things, and though our own white folks
had never been SO favored, they did not
contradict the old negroes and the old
white people. who had seen them. One
sight, however, l did see, and that was
he ..vyorldf in an egg
~ 3 - re r. 4 Stone bright on New Years
do fal was made by opening the
glass II Of the dwelling and setting
9 af full Of water on the floor in
okezAes bshine. Into this an egg was
AGtfstIsgI, and as the contents slowly min
eyed 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. | saw
the "egg men," a few Of them, once
when I was about eight years old, but
have never been able to see them since.
Philosophers may supply the explana-
ton. in those days, too, l 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 was
then a sort of supplementary Christmas
there was, less rioting and more quiet,
homely cheer. On Christmas the ten.
dency was to gather at the village or
country store to drink and sing, shoot at
a mark, wrestle and race; New Years
was the day for relatives and intimate
friends to gather and partake of a boun-
tiful dinner. 1t was about 1850 that
"watch night began to be observed
with religious services, at least in our
neighborhood, and the old superstitious
seemed to disappear all at once. No
more praying COWS or re%verential roost-
ers, no more %cprouting plants or ssmenin
the egg, and no doubt the young people
OF chat region would now lear with
amazement that any one, no matter how
ignorant, ever ''took stock in such
things" j. Ell. BE.D1E