Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-11-07
GHOSTS AND mrcAcRAFr.
A Region in New England Where Super
etftion ThriVeS.

a Region in New England Where Super.
stitiOn Thrives.
This wild, wooded and rocky-ribbed re-
gion, less than days journey from Gen.
eral Putnam's historic wolf den, in North
eastern Connecticut, Is full of superstition,
writes New York Times correspondent
from Gloucester, X. l. 1t is one Of the
queerest of localities. In the center Of
Gloucester lies Ponagansett Lake, and all
about the shores of this lake are the dwell
ings OF a hale and hearty people, who make
this country. far from the busy haunts Of
men, a veritable wonderland of legend and
"Reminiscences. The old men delight in tell
ing ghost stories, and the young people like
to listen. Gloucester lies in the crooked old
Indian trail which ran between Connecticut
ard the Providence plantations.
For generations back the Gloucester
farmers have believed in wizardry. They
Will do much of their work only during the
full Of the moon. Otherwise they would
expect to die or to have very bad luck.
Planting must not be done until the signs
Of the zodiac are propitious, and gardens
must never be plowed on Fridays. Even q
tooth must not be pulled unless the stars
are right; If it is, it Will come hard and
cause great suffering.
Pork, If killed during the small Of the
moon, will shrink to nothing in cooking, while
that butchered at the full of the moon will
continue white and firm. To insure luck in
the management of domestic animals the
sign OF the zodiac must be in the leg. The
wishbones Of all fowls are preserved on
sticks. Some families keep hundreds on
hand all the time. When the zodiacal sign
is in the head, then the Glouchester people
believe one can do the most at catching
pickerel and can hook the biggest fish.
Hence the almanac hung by the kitchen
fireplace in all Gloucester houses is a thing
the settlers could not-lve without. Its
study, if one would reap good harvests,
''catch" good claiming tides and avoid mis-
fortune, is imperative.
These people also believe that if you take
upa black snake and bite it your teeth will
never decay; that if the nails are pared on
Friday tOothache viii be prevented, and
that child born in the heat of the day can
see into the future, and will be exempt from
influences of witchcraft. A ship that has
such a one on board they say will never
sink.
Perhaps the most curious belief still
haunting these hearthstones of interior
Rhode Island is that relating to the char
acter of the little fish in Ponagansett reser-
voir. This pond is the source of the Paw
tuxet river, which flows easterly into Mar
ragansett bay, and years before the build.
ing Of the dam across the outlet of the lake,
herring from the salt sea used to swim up
the stream TO the shoal waters of the lake
TO spawn. The old settlers who have lived
about the lake all their lives aver that the
sinners which now glisten in its crystal
waters are naught else but the degenerated
descendants of the herring race, and show
the same characteristics. One of 1.-The Bowen
boys" at the lake frequently says that my
father used to say there was no sinners be-
fore any dams was built to fence out the
herrin S."