Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-30
.SQUAL|D CLANS LIVE
NEAR HOOVER CAMP
IIIiterate Mountaineers in Dire
Poverty 100 Miles From
Capital.
Continued From First Page.)


and symbolic
Entirely individualistic, it represents
triumph over the great natural enemy
the rocks which clog up the mountain
paths and the corn patches. After a
man has held up rock for an I'M
usually long period 1t Is customary to
drop 1t with gesture of contempt. The
people live under the constant frown of
gaunt, bare old Stony Man Peak-one
of the highest crags in the Blue Ridge.
They lack the imagination to develop
a mythology, but they seem to sense a
maleyolence in the great rocks which
they cannot express in language but
which finds its expression in the game.
There are no children's games. 1t is
only with great difficulty that the boys
and girls can be taught to play to-
gether. Such a game as base ball
ball or bat is not to be found for miles
grounds unthinkable in the present
stage of their culture. It would be hard
to teach two children to toss a ball
back and forth because this simple ex-
erciSe involves a certain amount of CO.
operation. Efforts have been made dur
ing the Summer to introduce such
games as blind mans buff" and Lon
don bridge is falling down" among the
little girls, but with Indifferent success.
The idea of playing together is contrary
W tllC utCltQl PobtSAlA VA VIC PCOP4C anu
much resistance must be overcome to
inculcate it.
The children do not play because
their parents and grandparents did not
play. Apparently there are no social
organizations, no instrumental music,
no dancing, no neighborhood gatherings.
Individuals live for themselves alone,
according to observers. The men hunt
alone and trap alone. The toothless
1nr Nf n
neighborhood chatfeSts. There are no
gangs" of boys and no corresponding
organizations of girls.
Games End in Fights.
Games nearly always end in fights.
The teachers hardest period is recess
and lunch time, which is cut as short
as possible AS in all mountain COM
munitieS, there is q certain clan feeling
toward strangers, but this does not
obtain between each other despite the
extremely close relationships, brought
about by generations of intermarriage.
The pride and loyalty supposedly
characteristic of mountaineers largely
are lacking.
One result is the apparent complete
lack of inhibitions. There are no deli
cacies Of language. Any physical fact
is referred to in the plainest words pos
ton Of giving offense, even by the small
girls.
"You cock-eyed hell-cat" is on of the
mildest terms small girls apply to each
other. Their Usual expressions are
much more simple and objective. The
adults, silent people, know and use few
words. The loneliness and individuality
of the towering crags is in their spirits,
but they have absorbed little OF the
strength of the mountains.
A curious return to primitive human
conditions is seen in the division of
labor Generally the manual work, such
as cultivating the tiny corn, cabbage
and potato patches. falls to the women.
The men hunt. Nearly all have rifles,
in which they take great pride. Game is
scarce. Rabbits help keep the families
alive during the long Winters. Occa-
sionally fox, or even mink, pelt brings
in little ready money. During the
Summer there are odd jobs about the
mountain resort near the summit of
Stony Man for those willing to work.
Once the great source of revenue was
chestnuts. Now the dead, white trunks
of the chestnut trees, victims OF the
blight which has swept up the Appa-
lachians, cover the mountain slopes
ghostly symbols of the death and des-
olation which seems to be coming to the
communities themselves. Only few
healthy trees are left and it would be
improbable to gather the nuts. With
the chestnuts has disappeared one other
source of work and revenue-the gather
ing of tanbark, which was being dis
placed by scientific methods. So the
mountain people have been left without
revenue.
Wild Honey Provides Revenue.
One source of revenue remains-the
gathering of wild honey. The noun
A man will spend four or five days
locating a single bee tree. Sometimes
as much as 100 pounds of honey will
be obtained, but quite often the amount
found is negligible. This ability of
"coursing" bees appears to be one of
the few accomplishments. The men
practice a good deal witfD their rifles
but not In competition. Whether they
are good shots is open to question.
What was the origin of these primi-
tive and degenerated communities?
There are no written records, for
writing long has been lost art among
them. The present generation appar-
emily has no traditions and no folk lore
which might provide a clue. Imagina-
ton and memory have vanished to-
gether.
The majority are believed to be de-
scendants of pre-revolutionary pioneers
whose wagons broke down on the west
ward trek somewhere in the neighbour
hood and who became marooned in the
mountain hollowS. The population was
increased by deSerterS from the Revo-
lutionary armies, British, HeSSian and
Continental. Still later came a few
Civil War deserters from both Confed-
crate and Union armies. According to
competent observers, a New England
twang occasionally can be detected in
some hollows.
Students of linguistics will find
wealth of material in the speech Of
these people which may prove somewhat
difficult to analyze. Middle English. APP
proximately the language Of Chaucer,
which fingered on even through the
restoration period in parts of rural
England and was brought to Virginia by
the earliest settlers, still Is found in
degenerated form in these clusters of
cabins.
Use Shakespearean English.
"Closen gentes," cry a group of rag
ged children, thrusting punches of blue
flowers into the faces of Summer
tians, but the mountain speech still
retains the final Zen" of the Middle
English past tense. They speak of
''nestes, postes, deskes" for nests, posts,
desks, etc. In sense, they preserve the
spoken English of Shakespeare's day.
1t has been modified, however, by other
speech forms which ragged fugitives
have brought into the hollows. Such
words as the middle English "holp" for