The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-03
THE MORNING NEWS: MONDAY SEPTEMBER 9 1894


lowing day. Clearly this is a very old
superstition, and the mountaineers have
it as well as the Crackers.
Some characteristic superstitions of the
southern negroes had u hooking bird
singing through them. ] made a short
voyage on corn boat many years ago.
1t was down the COOsawattee we went
sailing. The boatmen were stalwart
slaves, happy, sOngful and good story tel
lers in their way. The hooking birds
twittered and tiuted all night in the
thickets along the rive- banks, and the
jet black captain smoked and babbled
From him 1 got the following, which
now set in his own phraseology as nearly
as I can:
Yah, de mockin' bird sing wen de
moon shine bright; but yo' amt got no
business tryin' ter ketch IN at il; he not
gwine let 20 see m den vile he ten ter
he business"
1 cross-examined the captain and
found out that the hooking birds "busi-
ness was somewhat uncanny, relating,
indeed, to dark coniuring not fit to be de-
scribcd here
In Alabama negro who boasted descent
from an African king, albeit he was a
most unroyal looking dwarf himself. told
me the story of the owl and the magnolia
tree. He said that every spring the great
laughing owl came TO the magnolia tree
dts bloom. EFF 70 does open it" the
bird insisted, 'yos gwine ter lose somedn'
W. at yo' cayn't sit back" But the foolish
tree never needed the admonitiou, il
opened its bloorn and lost the sweet odor
for which it grieved whole year there
after n-s s "
The blueiay, according. to Cracker and
negro tradition, visits hell every Friday
to pay the devil a days work, carrying
Goals TO feed the pit-rre And the turtle
dove has the reputation of a wolf in
sleeps clothing. He's a regular ole
tarkle dove is a phrase which in Blue
Ridge lingo means that the person
spoken of is saint cutwardly while in
wardly he is rottenness and dead mems
bones.
An old mulatto man who went with me
down the AEcilla river, in Florida seemed
to be half-breed in religion as well as
blood. He was Baptist, but he crossed
himself whenever heron flew ahead of
us. He told me. solemnly following his
throat TO make his notes sepulchral, that
the heron carried deathO powder
on its back; if you breathed in but a sin
gle grain of it your doom was sealed
When ! made light of his story he shook
his head and muttered: "Nebah min,
boss, you boun' ter get fooled some time
or ODER
Returning to the woodpecker, it was
EOuCld ally bCllCNGu Ny bllG NNtOIEtd IuOuIl-
taineers that the acOrns hidden by the
common redhead (Melanerpes erythroce-
phalus) in hollows and Clefts of trees
We're poisoned by the bird s tongue 10
the great horror OF the lank youth who
told me this, | ate q number of the hard,
dry kernels, hoping to enlighten him
but l only demonstrated to his satisfac-
tlon that was a "rayglar blame fool ter
be a reskin' SIGH projicks' Among the
mountain sportsmen, who used the old
fashioned nintlock rife, the dicker's
golden-shafted quill was always chosen
TO stop up the pan-vent of the gun while
ramming home the bullet. This was
| thought to insure great good luck. On
the other hand, a screech owls wing
feather would send the shot wide of the
| mark. | saw savage fisticuf fight al
shooting match, near Dalton, brought
ABOUT by one man furtively slipping an
owl quill into the touch-hole of his adver-
sarys gun, and the hedges O. the shoot
in unanimously decided that Jake he'd
no fair chance WI tibet air feather both
erin i'm"
A family by the name of Dodd, living
/ in wild and lonely pocket" of the Pine
! Log mountains, showed me variety Of
snake skins collected from the nests of
/ great crested hycatchers. These dry
sheddlngs were valued as q specific for
! headache the cure was effected by re-
/ peating an incarnation while blowing the
/ breath upon one of the skins
One more note and | must close The
/ yellow-billed cuckoo has an air of mys-
! terry; his style is reserved shadowy and
! elusive. On account of his very long tail
! and bill he appears much larger than he
| is hence il seems that he is difficult
/ target for the ritlemen of the hills and
| they have it that his feathers are bullet
| proof Many time have [ been told that
hit air no use ter shoot at er rain crow,
/ We cayn't hit it nohow; hits feathers list
/ turn er bullets like er ducks turns war
/ ter" Ia llS
! Once I boosted that I could break the
/ cuckoo charm. My mountain friend was
/ willing to wager anything that ] could
/ not. After some looking about we saw
! our bird, and took deliberate aim In
/ those days 10 shoot was, with me. to hit:
! but not a feather of the cuckoo did [
| touch. Even now / hear the haunting,
! arid laugh which greeted my failure.