Produced by David Widger                           MYTHS AND LEGENDS                                   OF                              OUR OWN LAND                                   By                           Charles M Skinner                                Vol 5                    LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTHCONTENTSThe Swim at Indian HeadThe Moaning SistersA Ride for a BrideSpooks of the HiawasseeLake of the Dismal SwampThe Barge of DefeatNatural BridgeThe Silence BrokenSiren of the French BroadThe Hunter of CalawasseeRevenge of the AccabeeToccoa FallsTwo Lives for OneA Ghostly AvengerThe Wraith Ringer of AtlantaThe Swallowing EarthquakeThe Last Stand of the BiloxiThe Sacred Fire of NatchezPass ChristianThe Under LandLIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTHTHE SWIM AT INDIAN HEADAt Indian Head Maryland are the government provinggrounds where theracket of great guns and splintering of targets are a deterrent to themiscellaneous visitations of picnics Trouble has been frequentlyassociated with this neighborhood as it is now suggested in the noisysymbolry of war In prehistoric days it was the site of an aboriginaltown whose denizens were like other Indians in their love for fight andtheir willingness to shed blood Great was the joy of all these citizenswhen a scouting party came in one day bringing with them the daughterof one of their toughest old hunters and a young buck from anotherfaction who had come acourting her in the neighboring shadesCapture meant death usually and he knew it but he held himself proudlyand refused to ask for mercy It was resolved that he should die Thefathers scorn for his daughter that she should thus consort with anenemy was so great that he was on the point of offering her as a jointsacrifice with her lover when she fell on her knees before him and begana fervent appeal not for herself but for the prisoner She would doanything to prove her strength her duty her obedience if they wouldset him free He had done injury to none What justice lay in putting himto the tortureHalf in earnest half in humor the chief answered Suppose we were toset him on the farther shore of the Potomac do you love him well enoughto swim to himI doThe river is wide and deepI would drown in it rather than that harm should come to himThe old chief ordered the captive still bound to be taken to a point onthe Virginia shore full two miles away in one of their canoes and whenthe boat was on the water he gave the word to the girl who instantlyplunged in and followed it The chief and the father embarked in anotherbirchostensibly to see that the task was honestly fulfilled reallyperhaps to see that the damsel did not drown It was a long course butthe maid was not as many of our city misses are and she reached thebank tired but happy for she had saved her lover and gained him for ahusbandTHE MOANING SISTERSAbove Georgetown on the Potomac River are three rocks known as theThree Sisters not merely because of their resemblance to each otherforthey are parts of a submerged reefbut because of a tradition that morethan a hundred years ago a boat in which three sisters had gone out fora row was swung against one of these rocks The day was gusty and theboat was upset All three of the girls were drowned Either the sistersremain about this perilous spot or the rocks have prescience at leastthose who live near them on the shore hold one view or the other forthey declare that before every death on the river the sisters moan thesound being heard above the lapping of the waves It is different fromany other sound in nature Besides it is an unquestioned fact that moreaccidents happen here than at any other point on the riverMany are the upsets that have occurred and many are the swimmers who havegone down the dark forms of the sisters being the last shapes that theirwaterblurred eyes have seen It is only before a human life is to beyielded that this low wailing comes from the rocks and when on a nightin May 1889 the sound floated shoreward just as the clock inGeorgetown struck twelve good people who were awake sighed and uttered aprayer for the one whose doom was so near at hand Twelve hours later atnoon a shell came speeding down the Potomac with a young athletejauntily pulling at the oars As he neared the Three Sisters his boatappeared to be caught in an eddy it swerved suddenly as if struck thenit upset and the rower sank to his deathA RIDE FOR A BRIDEWhen the story of bloodshed at Bunker Hill reached Bohemia Hall in CecilCounty Maryland Albert De Courcy left his brother Ernest to support thedignity of the house and make patriotic speeches while he went to thefront conscious that Helen Carmichael his affianced wife was watchingin pride and sadness the departure of his company Letters came andwent as they always do until rumor came of a sore defeat to thecolonials