The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-10-08
LoGGERs' DEMONS.
Fiendish Creatures who Inhabit Maine
 Forests.

Forests.
 No one knows who invented the devil tales of northern Maine and Canada, says letter from Shirley, Maine, to the Boston Herald. They were current when the first Yankee missionary pene- trated the wilderness between Portland and Montreal and spotted out a path for Benedict Arnold and his hungry men to follow when they marched against Canada at the outbreak of the revolution.
 Learned men who have investigated the subject believe that the tales are a survival of aged stories told by the French people years ago to keep their children from running in the woods and meetingf dangerous wild animals. Within the past week John Armstrong has learned to his cost how deeply these ancient beliefs are rooted in the minds of Canadian woodsmen. Armstrong has drive on the West Branch, and sent up a crew of fresh men in June to help | in hurrying the logs to market. They were farmers from New Bruns- wick who had never worked in the woods before and were, therefore, easy prey for the hardened woodsmen. First the woodsmen told them that the moun- | tain sides around Churchill Lake were | infested with wetherlicks that were ca pable of pulling down a log hovel and carrying off a horse. As rule, the | wetherlick was not an enemy to men, If new man on coming to camp would leave a pound of plug tobacco on the hovel steps in the first week of his stay no wetherlick would harm him.
 As soon as the old hands had made z levy of tobacco in this way they begar to tell about the sidehill winder, beas that was half-rabbit and half-panther and could run as fast as cloud shadow when it raced before west wind acros the lake It was clad in scale armor, s' no bullet coul dharm it's life, and whei hungry it had been known to devour campful of men at one meal. .%
 There was only one way of avoidin. the wrath of the sidehill winder. If ; new man wished to escape this danger ous foe he must deposit quart af Ii quor at the forks of the logging road ol the side of the mountain. After dring ing it the sidehill winder would feel ga. and try to run around the base of tn mountain from right to left, thus bring ing it's short legs on the }downhill sid and causing it to travel so slowly tha 8 swift man could catch it and choke until it promised to reform.
 No sooner had the late arrivals pal the price of safety from the sidefi
 winder than they were made acquainte with the punishment the flying terri
 shault could infiict unless it was kep supplied with both whiskey and tobac
 co. According to the reports made b
 the lumberrnen, the flying terrishault a modern griffin with leather wings, long bill with teeth on both jaws an
 eyes so bright that they could be see across the lake on dark night. It ha
 but one leg, which terminated in mon
 strous Sloven hoof, showing conclusive ly that it was closely related to Satar The newcomers had by this time bee
 among their associates long enough t learn that they did not tell the Whol truth at all times, and when the fires J demand for whiskey and double thic plug was made they suspected a hoa1 To convince them the old lumberme got the carpenter to hew a gigantic cit
 ven hoof from pine log. With this
 series of tracks was made in the mu along the stream.
 The next morning, when the coo , went along the stream in the Wauga boat to deal out the second breakfast the crew, he met fourteen very pa u men wading waist deep in the wate |. and hurrying for the camp. He recof , nized them as the crew lately sent in i, Armstrong and asked them what the < wanted
 "Ze f1yin' terrshault," they erie 7 "Heem bin jess down strean-heem bl
 dam hungry, too.' , The cook told them that there was o such 8 creature and tried to give the
 to understand that the old hands hs
 been having some horseplay at their e
 pense. When he had done the leader
 the party replied:
 e You donr bin fool me. Ah'm bin s
 nneem tracks"
 = They settled up before noon, al e walking thirty miles to thte lake, tot t boat to the nearest railroad static B whence they hurried back to the O d J farms. leaving Armstrongs drive n wait until he could hire new hands
 asa