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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6610.txt b/6610.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1ed05b --- /dev/null +++ b/6610.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1356 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Lights And Shadows Of The South, by Charles M. Skinner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lights And Shadows Of The South + Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Volume 5. + +Author: Charles M. Skinner + +Release Date: October 22, 2006 [EBook #6610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + MYTHS AND LEGENDS + OF + OUR OWN LAND + + By + Charles M. Skinner + + Vol. 5. + + + LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH + + + + +CONTENTS: + +The Swim at Indian Head +The Moaning Sisters +A Ride for a Bride +Spooks of the Hiawassee +Lake of the Dismal Swamp +The Barge of Defeat +Natural Bridge +The Silence Broken +Siren of the French Broad +The Hunter of Calawassee +Revenge of the Accabee +Toccoa Falls +Two Lives for One +A Ghostly Avenger +The Wraith Ringer of Atlanta +The Swallowing Earthquake +The Last Stand of the Biloxi +The Sacred Fire of Natchez +Pass Christian +The Under Land + + + + + +LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH + + + +THE SWIM AT INDIAN HEAD + +At Indian Head, Maryland, are the government proving-grounds, where the +racket of great guns and splintering of targets are a deterrent to the +miscellaneous visitations of picnics. Trouble has been frequently +associated with this neighborhood, as it is now suggested in the noisy +symbolry of war. In prehistoric days it was the site of an aboriginal +town, whose denizens were like other Indians in their love for fight and +their willingness to shed blood. Great was the joy of all these citizens +when a scouting party came in, one day, bringing with them the daughter +of one of their toughest old hunters and a young buck, from another +faction, who had come a-courting; her in the neighboring shades. + +Capture meant death, usually, and he knew it, but he held himself proudly +and refused to ask for mercy. It was resolved that he should die. The +father's scorn for his daughter, that she should thus consort with an +enemy, was so great that he was on the point of offering her as a joint +sacrifice with her lover, when she fell on her knees before him and began +a fervent appeal, not for herself, but for the prisoner. She would do +anything to prove her strength, her duty, her obedience, if they would +set him free. He had done injury to none. What justice lay in putting him +to the torture? + +Half in earnest, half in humor, the chief answered, "Suppose we were to +set him on the farther shore of the Potomac, do you love him well enough +to swim to him?" + +"I do." + +"The river is wide and deep." + +"I would drown in it rather than that harm should come to him." + +The old chief ordered the captive, still bound, to be taken to a point on +the Virginia shore, full two miles away, in one of their canoes, and when +the boat was on the water he gave the word to the girl, who instantly +plunged in and followed it. The chief and the father embarked in another +birch--ostensibly to see that the task was honestly fulfilled; really, +perhaps, to see that the damsel did not drown. It was a long course, but +the maid was not as many of our city misses are, and she reached the +bank, tired, but happy, for she had saved her lover and gained him for a +husband. + + + + +THE MOANING SISTERS + +Above Georgetown, on the Potomac River, are three rocks, known as the +Three Sisters, not merely because of their resemblance to each other--for +they are parts of a submerged reef--but because of a tradition that, more +than a hundred years ago, a boat in which three sisters had gone out for +a row was swung against one of these rocks. The day was gusty and the +boat was upset. All three of the girls were drowned. Either the sisters +remain about this perilous spot or the rocks have prescience; at least, +those who live near them on the shore hold one view or the other, for +they declare that before every death on the river the sisters moan, the +sound being heard above the lapping of the waves. It is different from +any other sound in nature. Besides, it is an unquestioned fact that more +accidents happen here than at any other point on the river. + +Many are the upsets that have occurred and many are the swimmers who have +gone down, the dark forms of the sisters being the last shapes that their +water-blurred eyes have seen. It is only before a human life is to be +yielded that this low wailing comes from the rocks, and when, on a night +in May, 1889, the sound floated shoreward, just as the clock in +Georgetown struck twelve, good people who were awake sighed and uttered a +prayer for the one whose doom was so near at hand. Twelve hours later, at +noon, a shell came speeding down the Potomac, with a young athlete +jauntily pulling at the oars. As he neared the Three Sisters his boat +appeared to be caught in an eddy; it swerved suddenly, as if struck; then +it upset and the rower sank to his death. + + + + +A RIDE FOR A BRIDE + +When the story of bloodshed at Bunker Hill reached Bohemia Hall, in Cecil +County, Maryland, Albert De Courcy left his brother Ernest to support the +dignity of the house and make patriotic speeches, while he went to the +front, conscious that Helen Carmichael, his affianced wife, was watching, +in pride and sadness, the departure of his company. Letters came and +went, as they always do, until rumor came of a sore defeat to the +colonials at Long Island; then the letters ceased. + +It was a year later when a ragged soldier, who had stopped at the hall +for supper, told of Albert's heroism in covering the retreat of +Washington. The gallant young officer had been shot, he said, as he +attempted to swim the morasses of Gowanus. But this soldier was in error. +Albert had been vexatiously bogged on the edge of the creek. While +floundering in the mud a half dozen sturdy red-coats had lugged him out +and he was packed off to the prison-ships anchored in the Wallabout. In +these dread hulks, amid darkness and miasma, living on scant, unwholesome +food, compelled to see his comrades die by dozens every day and their +bodies flung ashore where the tide lapped away the sand thrown over them, +De Courcy wished that death instead of capture had been his lot, for next +to his love he prized his liberty. + +One day he was told off, with a handful of others, for transfer to a +stockade on the Delaware, and how his heart beat when he learned that the +new prison was within twenty miles of home! His flow of spirits returned, +and his new jailers liked him for his frankness and laughed at his honest +expletives against the king. He had the liberty of the enclosure, and was +not long in finding where the wall was low, the ditch narrow, and the +abatis decayed--knowledge that came useful to him sooner than he +expected, for one day a captured horse was led in that made straight for +him with a whinny and rubbed his nose against his breast. + +"Why!" he cried,--"it's Cecil! My horse, gentlemen--or, was. Not a better +hunter in Maryland!" + +"Yes," answered one of the officers. "We've just taken him from your +brother. He's been stirring trouble with his speeches and has got to be +quieted. But we'll have him to-day, for he's to be married, and a +scouting party is on the road to nab him at the altar." + +"Married! My brother! What! Ernest, the lawyer, the orator? Ho, ho! Ah, +but it's rather hard to break off a match in that style!" + +"Hard for him, maybe; but they say the lady feels no great love for him. +He made it seem like a duty to her, after her lover died." + +"How's that? Her own--what's her name?" + +"Helen--Helen Carmichael, or something like that." + +Field and sky swam before De Courcy's eyes for a moment; then he resumed, +in a calm voice, and with a pale, set face, "Well, you're making an +unhappy wedding-day for him. If he had Cecil here he would outride you +all. Ah, when I was in practice I could ride this horse and snatch a +pebble from the ground without losing pace!" + +"Could you do it now?" + +"I'm afraid long lodging in your prison-ships has stiffened my joints, +but I'd venture at a handkerchief." + +"Then try," said the commandant. + +De Courcy mounted into the saddle heavily, crossed the grounds at a +canter, and dropped a handkerchief on the grass. Then, taking a few turns +for practice, he started at a gallop and swept around like the wind. His +seat was so firm, his air so noble, his mastery of the steed so complete, +that a cheer of admiration went up. He seemed to fall headlong from the +saddle, but was up again in a moment, waving the handkerchief gayly in +farewell--for he kept straight on toward the weak place in the wall. A +couple of musket-balls hummed by his ears: it was neck or nothing now! A +tremendous leap! Then a ringing cry told the astonished soldiers that he +had reached the road in safety. Through wood and thicket and field he +dashed as if the fiend were after him, and never once did he cease to +urge his steed till he reached the turnpike, and saw ahead the scouting +party on its way to arrest his brother. + +Turning into a path that led to the rear of the little church they were +so dangerously near, he plied hands and heels afresh, and in a few +moments a wedding party was startled by the apparition of a black horse, +all in a foam, ridden by a gaunt man, in torn garments, that burst in at +the open chancel-door. The bridegroom cowered, for he knew his brother. +The bride gazed in amazement. "'Tis the dead come to life!" cried one. De +Courcy had little time for words. He rode forward to the altar, swung +Helen up behind him, and exclaimed, "Save yourselves! The British are +coming! To horse, every one, and make for the manor!" There were shrieks +and fainting--and perhaps a little cursing, even if it was in +church,--and when the squadron rode up most of the company were in full +flight. Ernest was taken, and next morning held his brother's place on +the prison-list, while, as arrangements had been made for a wedding, +there was one, and a happy one, but Albert was the bridegroom. + + + + +SPOOKS OF THE HIAWASSEE + +The hills about the head of the Hiawassee are filled with "harnts," among +them many animal ghosts, that ravage about the country from sheer +viciousness. The people of the region, illiterate and superstitious, have +unquestioning faith in them. They tell you about the headless bull and +black dog of the valley of the Chatata, the white stag of the +Sequahatchie, and the bleeding horse of the Great Smoky Mountains--the +last three being portents of illness, death, or misfortune to those who +see them. + +Other ghosts are those of men. Near the upper Hiawassee is a cave where a +pile of human skulls was found by a man who had put up his cabin near the +entrance. For some reason, which he says he never understood, this farmer +gathered up the old, bleached bones and dumped them into his shed. Quite +possibly he did not dare to confess that he wanted them for fertilizers +or to burn them for his poultry. + +Night fell dark and still, with a waning moon rising over the +mountains--as calm a night as ever one slept through. Along toward the +middle of it a sound like the coming of a cyclone brought the farmer out +of his bed. He ran to the window to see if the house were to be uprooted, +but the forest was still, with a strange, oppressive stillness--not a +twig moving, not a cloud veiling the stars, not an insect chirping. +Filled with a vague fear, he tried to waken his wife, but she was like +one in a state of catalepsy. + +Again the sound was heard, and now he saw, without, a shadowy band +circling about his house like leaves whirled on the wind. It seemed to be +made of human shapes, with tossing arms--this circling band--and the +sound was that of many voices, each faint and hollow, by itself, but loud +in aggregate. He who was watching realized then that the wraiths of the +dead whose skulls he had purloined from their place of sepulture were out +in lament and protest. He went on his knees at once and prayed with vigor +until morning. As soon as it was light enough to see his way he replaced +the skulls, and was not troubled by the "haunts" again. All the gold in +America, said he, would not tempt him to remove any more bones from the +cave-tombs of the unknown dead. + + + + +LAKE OF THE DISMAL SWAMP + +Drummond's Pond, or the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, is a dark and lonely +tarn that lies in the centre of this noted Virginia morass. It is, in a +century-old tradition, the Styx of two unhappy ghosts that await the end +of time to pass its confines and enjoy the sunshine of serener worlds. A +young woman of a family that had settled near this marsh died of a fever +caused by its malarial exhalations, and was buried near the swamp. The +young man to whom she was betrothed felt her loss so keenly that for days +he neither ate nor slept, and at last broke down in mind and body. He +recovered a measure of physical health, after a time, but his reason was +hopelessly lost. + +It was his hallucination that the girl was not dead, but had been exiled +to the lonely reaches of this watery wilderness. He was heard to mutter, +"I'll find her, and when Death comes I'll hide her in the hollow of a +cypress until he passes on." Evading restraint, he plunged into the fen, +and for some days he wandered there, eating berries, sleeping on tussocks +of grass, with water-snakes crawling over him and poisonous plants +shedding their baneful dew on his flesh. He came to the lake at last. A +will-o'the-wisp played along the surface. "'Tis she!" he cried. "I see +her, standing in the light." Hastily fashioning a raft of cypress boughs +he floated it and pushed toward the centre of the pond, but the eagerness +of his efforts and the rising of a wind dismembered the frail platform, +and he fell into the black water to rise no more. But often, in the +night, is seen the wraith of a canoe, with a fire-fly lamp burning on its +prow, restlessly urged to and fro by two figures that seem to be vainly +searching for an exit from the place, and that are believed to be those +of the maiden and her lover. + + + + +THE BARGE OF DEFEAT + +Rappannock River, in Virginia, used to be vexed with shadowy craft that +some of the populace affirmed to be no boats, but spirits in disguise. +One of these apparitions was held in fear by the Democracy of Essex +County, as it was believed to be a forerunner of Republican victory. The +first recorded appearance of the vessel was shortly after the Civil War, +on the night of a Democratic mass-meeting at Tappahannock. There were +music, refreshments, and jollity, and it was in the middle of a rousing +speech that a man in the crowd cried, "Look, fellows! What is that queer +concern going down the river?" + +The people moved to the shore, and by the light of their torches a hulk +was seen drifting with the stream--a hulk of fantastic form unlike +anything that sails there in the daytime. As it came opposite the throng, +the torchlight showed gigantic negroes who danced on deck, showing +horrible faces to the multitude. Not a sound came from the barge, the +halloos of the spectators bringing no response, and some boatmen ventured +into the stream, only to pull back in a hurry, for the craft had become +so strangely enveloped in shadow that it seemed to melt into air. + +Next day the Democracy was defeated at the polls, chiefly by the negro +vote. In 1880 it reappeared, and, as before, the Republicans gained the +day. Just before the election of 1886, Mr. Croxton, Democratic nominee +for Congress, was haranguing the people, when the cry of "The Black +Barge!" arose. Argument and derision were alike ineffectual with the +populace. The meeting broke up in silence and gloom, and Mr. Croxton was +defeated by a majority of two thousand. + + + + +NATURAL BRIDGE + +Though several natural bridges are known in this country, there is but +one that is famous the world over, and that is the one which spans Clear +Creek, Virginia--the remnant of a cave-roof, all the rest of the cavern +having collapsed. It is two hundred and fifteen feet above the water, and +is a solid mass of rock forty feet thick, one hundred feet wide, and +ninety feet in span. Thomas Jefferson owned it; George Washington scaled +its side and carved his name on the rock a foot higher than any one else. +Here, too, came the youth who wanted to cut his name above Washington's, +and who found, to his horror, when half-way up, that he must keep on, for +he had left no resting-places for his feet at safe and reachable +distances--who, therefore, climbed on and on, cutting handhold and +foothold in the limestone until he reached the top, in a fainting state, +his knife-blade worn to a stump. Here, too, in another tunnel of the +cavern, flows Lost River, that all must return to, at some time, if they +drink of it. Here, beneath the arch, is the dark stain, so like a flying +eagle that the French officer who saw it during the Revolution augured +from it a success for the united arms of the nations that used the eagle +as their symbol. + +The Mohegans knew this wonder of natural masonry, for to this point they +were pursued by a hostile tribe, and on reaching the gulf found +themselves on the edge of a precipice that was too steep at that point to +descend. Behind them was the foe; before them, the chasm. At the +suggestion of one of their medicine-men they joined in a prayer to the +Great Spirit for deliverance, and when again they looked about them, +there stood the bridge. Their women were hurried over; then, like so many +Horatii, they formed across this dizzy highway and gave battle. +Encouraged by the knowledge that they had a safe retreat in case of being +overmastered, they fought with such heart that the enemy was defeated, +and the grateful Mohegans named the place the Bridge of God. + + + + +THE SILENCE BROKEN + +It was in 1734 that Joist Hite moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia, with +his wife and boys, and helped to make a settlement on the Shenandoah +twelve miles south of Woodstock. When picking berries at a distance from +the village, one morning, the boys were surprised by Indians, who hurried +with them into the wilderness before their friends could be apprised. +Aaron, the elder, was strong, and big of frame, with coarse, black hair, +and face tanned brown; but his brother was small and fair, with blue eyes +and yellow locks, and it was doubtless because he was a type of the hated +white race that the Indians spent their blows and kicks on him and spared +the sturdy one. Aaron was wild with rage at the injuries put upon his +gentle brother, but he was bound and helpless, and all that he could do +was to encourage him to bear a stout heart and not to fall behind. + +But Peter was too delicate to keep up, and there came a day when he could +go no farther. The red men consulted for a few moments, then all of them +stood apart but one, who fitted an arrow to his bow. The child's eyes +grew big with fear, and Aaron tore at his bonds, but uselessly, and +shouted that he would take the victim's place, but no one understood his +speech, and in another moment Peter lay dead on the earth, with an arrow +in his heart. Aaron gave one cry of hate and despair, and he, too, sank +unconscious. On coming to himself he found that he was in a hut of +boughs, attended by an old Indian, who told him in rude English that he +was recovering from an illness of several weeks' duration, and that it +was the purpose of his tribe to adopt him. When the lad tried to protest +he found to his amazement that he could not utter a sound, and he learned +from the Indian that the fever had taken away his tongue. In the dulness +and weakness of his state he submitted to be clothed in Indian dress, +smeared with a juice that browned his skin, and greeted by his brother's +slayers as one of themselves. When he looked into a pool he found that he +had, to all intents, become an Indian. In time he became partly +reconciled to this change, for he did not know and could not ask where +the white settlements lay; his appearance and his inability to speak +would prevent his recognition by his friends, the red men were not unkind +to him, and every boy likes a free and out-door life. They taught him to +shoot with bow and arrow, but they kept him back if a white settlement +was to be plundered. + +Three years had elapsed, and Aaron, grown tall and strong, was a good +hunter who stood in favor with the tribe. They had roamed back to the +neighborhood of Woodstock, when, at a council, Aaron overheard a plot to +fall on the village where his parents lived. He begged, by signs, to be +allowed to go with them, and, believing that he could now be trusted, +they offered no objection. Stoic as he had grown to be, he could not +repress a tear as he saw his old home and thought of the peril that it +stood in. If only he could give an alarm! The Indians retired into the +forest to cook their food where the smoke could not be seen, while Aaron +lingered at the edge of the wood and prayed for opportunity. He was not +disappointed. Two girls came up through the perfumed dusk, driving cows +from the pasture, and as they drew near, Aaron, pretending not to see +them, crawled out of the bush with his weapons, and made a show of +stealthily examining the town. The girls came almost upon him and +screamed, while he dashed into the wood in affected surprise and regained +the camp. The Indians had heard and seen nothing. The girls would surely +give the alarm in town. + +One by one the lights of the village went out, and when it seemed locked +in sleep the red marauders crept toward the nearest house--that of Joist +Hite. They arose together and rushed upon it, but at that moment a gun +was fired, an Indian fell, and in a few seconds more the settlers, whom +the girls had not failed to put on their guard, were hurrying from their +hiding-places, firing into the astonished crowd of savages, who dashed +for the woods again, leaving a dozen of their number on the ground. Aaron +remained quietly standing near his father's house, and he was captured, +as he hoped to be. When he saw how his parents had aged with time and +grief he could not repress a tear, but to his grief was added terror when +his father, after looking him steadily in the eye without recognition, +began to load a pistol. "They killed my boys," said he, "and I am going +to kill him. Bind him to that tree." + +In vain the mother pleaded for mercy; in vain the dumb boy's eyes +appealed to his father's. He was not afraid to die, and would do so +gladly to have saved the settlement; but to die by his father's band! He +could not endure it. He was bound to a tree, with the light of a fire +shining into his face. + +The old man, with hard determination, raised the weapon and aimed it +slowly at the boy's heart. A surge of feeling shook the frame of the +captive--he threw his whole life into the effort--then the silence of +three years was broken, and he cried, "Father!" A moment later his +parents were sobbing joyfully, and he could speak to them once more. + + + + +SIREN OF THE FRENCH BROAD + +Among the rocks east of Asheville, North Carolina, lives the Lorelei of +the French Broad River. This stream--the Tselica of the Indians--contains +in its upper reaches many pools where the rapid water whirls and deepens, +and where the traveller likes to pause in the heats of afternoon and +drink and bathe. Here, from the time when the Cherokees occupied the +country, has lived the siren, and if one who is weary and downcast sits +beside the stream or utters a wish to rest in it, he becomes conscious of +a soft and exquisite music blending with the plash of the wave. + +Looking down in surprise he sees--at first faintly, then with +distinctness--the form of a beautiful woman, with hair streaming like +moss and dark eyes looking into his, luring him with a power he cannot +resist. His breath grows short, his gaze is fixed, mechanically he rises, +steps to the brink, and lurches forward into the river. The arms that +catch him are slimy and cold as serpents; the face that stares into his +is a grinning skull. A loud, chattering laugh rings through the +wilderness, and all is still again. + + + + +THE HUNTER OF CALAWASSEE + +Through brisk November days young Kedar and his trusty slave, Lauto, +hunted along the Calawassee, with hope to get a shot at a buck--a buck +that wore a single horn and that eluded them with easy, baffling gait +whenever they met it in the fens. Kedar was piqued at this. He drained a +deep draught and buttoned his coat with an air of resolution. "Now, by my +soul," quoth he, "I'll have that buck to-day or die myself!" Then he +laughed at the old slave, who begged him to unsay the oath, for there was +something unusual about that animal--as it ran it left no tracks, and it +passed through the densest wood without halting at trees or undergrowth. +"Bah!" retorted the huntsman. "Have up the dogs. If that buck is the +fiend himself, I'll have him before the day is out!" The twain were +quickly in their saddles, and they had not been long in the wood before +the one-horned buck was seen ahead, trotting with easy pace, yet with +marvellous swiftness. + +Kedar, who was in advance, whipped up his horse and followed the deer +into a cypress grove near the Chechesee. As the game halted at a pool he +fired. The report sounded dead in the dense wood, and the deer turned +calmly, watched his pursuer until he was close at hand, then trotted away +again. All day long he held the chase. The dogs were nowhere within +sound, and he galloped through the forest, shouting and swearing like a +very devil, beating and spurring the horse until the poor creature's head +and flanks were reddened with blood. It was just at sunset that Kedar +found himself again on the bank of the Calawassee, near the point he had +left in the morning, and heard once more the baying of his hounds. At +last his prey seemed exhausted, and, swimming the river, it ran into a +thicket on the opposite side and stood still. "Now I have him!" cried the +hunter. "Hillio, Lauto! He's mine!" The old negro heard the call and +hastened forward. He heard his master's horse floundering in the swamp +that edged the river--then came a plash, a curse, and as the slave +arrived at the margin a few bubbles floated on the sluggish current. The +deer stood in the thicket, staring with eyes that blazed through the +falling darkness, and, with a wail of fear and sorrow, old Lauto fled the +spot. + + + + +REVENGE OF THE ACCABEE + +The settlement made by Lord Cardross, near Beaufort, South Carolina, was +beset by Spaniards and Indians, who laid it in ashes and slew every +person in it but one. She, a child of thirteen, had supposed the young +chief of the Accabees to be her father, as he passed in the smoke, and +had thrown herself into his arms. The savage raised his axe to strike, +but, catching her blue eye raised to his, more in grief and wonder than +alarm, the menacing hand fell to his side, and, tossing the girl lightly +to a seat on his shoulder, he strode off into the forest. Mile after mile +he bore her, and if she slept he held her to his breast as a father holds +a babe. When she awoke it was in his lodge on the Ashley, and he was +smiling in her face. The chief became her protector; but those who +marked, with the flight of time, how his fierceness had softened, knew +that she was more to him than a daughter. Years passed, the girl had +grown to womanhood, and her captor declared himself her lover. She seemed +not ill pleased at this, for she consented to be his wife. After the +betrothal the chief joined a hunting party and was absent for a time. On +his return the girl was gone. A trader who had been bartering merchandise +for furs had seen her, had been inspired by passion, and, favored by +suave manners and a white skin, he had won in a day a stronger affection +than the Indian could claim after years of loving watchfulness. + +When this discovery was made the chief, without a word, set off on the +trail, and by broken twig, by bended grass and footprints at the +brook-edge, he followed their course until he found them resting beneath +a tree. The girl sprang from her new lover's arms with a cry of fear as +the savage, with knife and tomahawk girt upon him, stepped into view, and +she would have clasped his knees, but he motioned her away; then, +ordering them to continue their march, he went behind them until they had +reached a fertile spot on the Ashley, near the present site of +Charleston, where he halted. "Though guilty, you shall not die," said he +to the woman; then, to his rival, "You shall marry her, and a white +priest shall join your hands. Here is your future home. I give you many +acres of my land, but look that you care for her. As I have been merciful +to you, do good to her. If you treat her ill, I shall not be far away." + +The twain were married and went to live on the acres that had been so +generously ceded to them, and for a time all went well; but the true +disposition of the husband, which was sullen and selfish, soon began to +disclose itself; disagreements arose, then quarrels; at last the man +struck his wife, and, seizing the deed of the Accabee land and a paper +that he had forced her to sign without knowing its contents, he started +for the settlements, intending to sell the property and sail for England. +On the edge of the village his flight was stayed by a tall form that +arose in his path-that of the Indian. "I gave you all," said the chief, +"the woman who should have been my wife, and then my land. This is your +thanks. You shall go no farther." + +With a quick stroke of the axe he cleft the skull of the shrinking +wretch, and then, cutting off his scalp, the Indian ran to the cottage +where sat the abandoned wife, weeping before the embers of her fire. He +roused her by tossing on fresh fuel, but she shrank back in grief and +shame when she saw who had come to her. "Do not fear," he said. "The man +who struck you meant to sell your home to strangers"--and he laid the +deed of sale before her, "but he will never play you false or lay hands on +you again. Look!" He tossed the dripping scalp upon the paper. "Now I +leave you forever. I cannot take you back among my people, who do not +know deceit like yours, nor could I ever love you as I did at first." +Turning, without other farewell he went out at the door. When this gift +of Accabee land was sold--for the woman could no longer bear to live on +it, but went to a northern city--a handsome house was built by the new +owner, who added game preserves and pleasure grounds to the estate, but +it was "haunted by a grief." Illness and ill luck followed the purchase, +and the house fell into ruin. + + + + +TOCCOA FALLS + +Early in the days of the white occupation of Georgia a cabin stood not +far from the Falls of Toccoa (the Beautiful). Its only occupant was a +feeble woman, who found it ill work to get food enough from the wild +fruits and scanty clearing near the house, and she had nigh forgotten the +taste of meat; for her two sons, who were her pride no less than her +support, had been killed by savages. She often said that she would gladly +die if she could harm the red men back, in return for her +suffering--which was not Christian doctrine, but was natural. She was +brooding at her fire, one winter evening, in wonder as to how one so weak +and old as she could be revenged, when her door was flung open and a +number of red men filled her cabin. She hardly changed countenance. She +did not rise. "You may take my life," she said, "for it is useless, now +that you have robbed it of all that made it worth living." + +"Hush!" said the chief. "What does the warrior want with the scalps of +women? We war on your men because they kill our game and steal our land." + +"Is it possible that you come to our homes except to kill?" + +"We are strangers and have lost our way. You must guide us to the foot of +Toccoa and lead us to our friends." + +"I lead you? Never!" + +The chief raised his axe, but the woman did not flinch. There was a +pause, in which the iron still hung menacing. Suddenly the dame looked up +and said, "If you promise to protect me, I will lead you." + +The promise was given and the band set forth, the aged guide in advance, +bending against the storm and clasping her poor rags about her. In the +darkest part of the wood, where the roaring of wind and groaning of +branches seemed the louder for the booming of waters, she cautioned the +band to keep in single file, but to make haste, for the way was far and +the gloom was thickening. Bending their heads against the wind they +pressed forward, she in advance. Suddenly, yet stealthily, she sprang +aside and crouched beneath a tree that grew at the very brink of the +fall. The Indians came on, following blindly, and in an instant she +descried the leader as he went whirling over the edge, and one after +another the party followed. When the last had gone to his death she arose +to her feet with a laugh of triumph. "Now I, too, can die!" she cried. So +saying, she fell forward into the grayness of space. + + + + +TWO LIVES FOR ONE + +The place of Macon, Georgia, in the early part of this century was marked +only by an inn. One of its guests was a man who had stopped there on the +way to Alabama, where he had bought land. The girl who was, to be his +wife was to follow in a few days. In the morning when he paid his +reckoning he produced a well-filled pocket-book, and he did not see the +significant look that passed between two rough black-bearded fellows who +had also spent the night there, and who, when he set forth, mounted their +horses and offered to keep him company. As they rode through the deserted +village of Chilicte one of the twain engaged the traveller in talk while +the other, falling a little behind, dealt him a blow with a loaded whip +that unseated him. Divining their purpose, and lacking weapons for his +own defence, he begged for mercy, and asked to be allowed to return to +his bride to be, but the robbers had already made themselves liable to +penalty, and two knife-thrusts in the breast silenced his appeals. The +money was secured, the body was dropped into a hollow where the wolves +would be likely to find and mangle it, and the outlaws went on their way. + +Men of their class do not keep money long, and when the proceeds of the +robbery had been wasted at cards and in drink they separated. As in +fulfilment of the axiom that a murderer is sure to revisit the scene of +his crime, one of the men found himself at the Ocmulgee, a long time +afterward, in sight of the new town--Macon. In response to his halloo a +skiff shot forth from the opposite shore, and as it approached the bank +he felt a stir in his hair and a touch of ice at his heart, for the +ferryman was his victim of years ago. Neither spoke a word, but the +criminal felt himself forced to enter the boat when the dead man waved +his hand, and he was rowed across, his horse swimming beside the skiff. +As the jar of the keel was felt on the gravel he leaped out, urged his +horse to the road, sprang to the saddle, and rushed away in an agony of +fear, that was heightened when a hollow voice called, "Stay!" + +After a little he slackened pace, and a farmer, who was standing at the +roadside, asked, in astonishment, "How did you get across? There is a +freshet, and the ferryman was drowned last night." With a new thrill he +spurred his horse forward, and made no other halt until he reached the +tavern, where he fell in a faint on the steps, for the strain was no +longer to be endured. A crowd gathered, but he did not see it when he +awoke--he saw only one pair of eyes, that seemed to be looking into his +inmost soul--the eyes of the man he had slain. With a yell of terror and +of insane fury he rushed upon the ghost and thrust a knife into its +breast. The frenzy passed. It was no ghost that lay on the earth before +him, staring up with sightless eyes. It was his fellow-murderer--his own +brother. That night the assassin's body hung from a tree at the +cross-roads. + + + + +A GHOSTLY AVENGER + +In Cuthbert, Georgia, is a gravestone thus inscribed: "Sacred to the +memory of Jim Brown." No date, no epitaph--for Jim Brown was hanged. And +this is the story: At the close of the Civil War a company of Federal +soldiers was stationed in Cuthbert, to enforce order pending the return +of its people to peaceful occupations. Charles Murphy was a lieutenant in +this company. His brother, an officer quartered in a neighboring town, +was sent to Cuthbert one day to receive funds for the payment of some +men, and left camp toward evening to return to his troop. That night +Charles Murphy was awakened by a violent flapping of his tent. It sounded +as though a gale was coming, but when he arose to make sure that the pegs +and poles of his canvas house were secure, the noise ceased, and he was +surprised to find that the air was clear and still. On returning to bed +the flapping began again, and this time he dressed himself and went out +to make a more careful examination. In the shadow of a tree a man stood +beckoning. It was his brother, who, in a low, grave voice, told him that +he was in trouble, and asked him to follow where he should lead him. The +lieutenant walked swiftly through fields and woods for some miles with +his relative--he had at once applied for and received a leave of absence +for a few hours--and they descended together a slope to the edge of a +swamp, where he stumbled against something. Looking down at the object on +which he had tripped, he saw that it was his brother's corpse--not newly +dead, but cold and rigid--the pockets rifled, the clothing soaked with +mire and blood. + +Dazed and terrified, he returned to camp, roused some of his men, and at +daybreak secured the body. An effort to gain a clue to the murderer was +at once set on foot. It was not long before evidence was secured that led +to the arrest of Jim Brown, and there was a hint that his responsibility +for the crime was revealed through the same supernatural agency that had +apprised Lieutenant Murphy of his bereavement. Brown was an ignorant farm +laborer, who had conceived that it was right to kill Yankees, and whose +cupidity had been excited by learning that the officer had money +concealed about him. He had offered, for a trifling sum, to take his +victim by a short cut to his camp, but led him to the swamp instead, +where he had shot him through the heart. On the culprit's arrival in +Cuthbert he was lynched by the soldiers, but was cut down by their +commander before life was extinct, and was formally and conclusively +hanged in the next week, after trial and conviction. + + + + +THE WRAITH RINGER OF ATLANTA + +A man was killed in Elliott Street, Atlanta, Georgia, by a cowardly +stroke from a stiletto. The assassin escaped. Strange what a humming +there was in the belfry of St. Michael's Church that night! Had the +murderer taken refuge there? Was it a knell for his lost soul, chasing +him through the empty streets and beginning already an eternal punishment +of terror? Perhaps the guilty one did not dare to leave Atlanta, for the +chimes sang in minor chords on several nights after. The old policeman +who kept ward in an antiquated guardhouse that stood opposite the +church--it was afterward shaken down by earthquake--said that he saw a +human form, which he would avouch to be that of the murdered man, though +it was wrapped in a cloak, stalk to the doors, enter without opening +them, glide up the winding stair, albeit he bent neither arm nor knee, +pass the ropes by which the chimes were rung, and mount to the belfry. He +could see the shrouded figure standing beneath the gloomy mouths of +metal. It extended its bony hands to the tongues of the bells and swung +them from side to side, but while they appeared to strike vigorously they +seemed as if muffled, and sent out only a low, musical roar, as if they +were rung by the wind. Was the murderer abroad on those nights? Did he, +too, see that black shadow of his victim in the belfry sounding an alarm +to the sleeping town and appealing to be avenged? It may be. At all +events, the apparition boded ill to others, for, whenever the chimes were +rung by spectral hands, mourners gathered at some bedside within hearing +of them and lamented that the friend they had loved would never know them +more on earth. + + + + +THE SWALLOWING EARTHQUAKE + +The Indian village that in 1765 stood just below the site of Oxford, +Alabama, was upset when the news was given out that two of the squaws had +given simultaneous birth to a number of children that were spotted like +leopards. Such an incident betokened the existence of some baneful spirit +among them that had no doubt leagued itself with the women, who were at +once tried on the charge of witchcraft, convicted, and sentenced to death +at the stake, while a watch was to be set on the infants, so early +orphaned, lest they, too, should show signs of malevolent possession. The +whole tribe, seventeen hundred in number, assembled to see the execution, +but hardly were the fires alight when a sound like thunder rolled beneath +their feet, and with a hideous crack and groan the earth opened and +nearly every soul was engulfed in a fathomless and smoking pit-all, +indeed, save two, for a couple of young braves who were on the edge of +the crowd flung themselves flat on the heaving ground and remained there +until the earthquake wave had passed. The hollow afterward filled with +water and was called Blue Pond. It is popularly supposed to be +fathomless, but it was shown that a forest once spread across the bottom, +when, but a few years ago, a great tree arose from the water, lifting +first its branches, then turning so as to show its roots above the +surface, and afterward disappeared. + + + + +LAST STAND OF THE BILOXI + +The southern part of this country was once occupied by a people called +the Biloxi, who had kept pace with the Aztecs in civilization and who +cultivated especially the art of music. In lives of gentleness and peace +they so soon forgot the use of arms that when the Choctaws descended on +their fields they were powerless to prevent the onset. Town after town +they evacuated before the savages, and at last the Biloxi, reduced to a +few thousands, were driven to the mouth of the Pascagoula River, +Mississippi, where they intrenched themselves, and for a few months +withstood the invaders. But the time came when their supplies were +exhausted, and every form was pinched with hunger. Flight was impossible. +Surrender commonly meant slaughter and outrage. They resolved to die +together. + +On a fair spring morning the river-ward gates of their fort were opened +and the survivors of that hapless tribe marched forth, their chief in +advance, with resolution on his wasted face, then the soldiers and +counsellors, the young men, the women and children, and the babes asleep +on the empty breasts of their mothers. As they emerged from the walls +with slow but steady step they broke into song, and their assailants, who +had retired to their tents for their meal, listened with surprise to the +chorus of defiance and rejoicing set up by the starving people. Without +pause or swerving they entered the bay and kept their march. Now the +waters closed over the chief, then the soldiers--at last only a few +voices of women were heard in the chant, and in a few moments all was +still. Not one shrank from the sacrifice. And for years after the echo of +that death-song floated over he waves. + +Another version of the legend sets forth that the Biloxi believed +themselves the children of the sea, and that they worshipped the image of +a lovely mermaid with wondrous music. After the Spaniards had come among +this gay and gentle people, they compelled them, by tyranny and murder, +to accept the religion of the white man, but of course it was only +lip-service that they rendered at the altar. The Biloxi were awakened one +night by the sound of wings and the rising of the river. Going forth they +saw the waters of Pascagoula heaped in a quivering mound, and bright on +its moonlit crest stood a mermaid that sang to them, "Come to me, +children of the sea. Neither bell, book, nor cross shall win you from +your queen." Entranced by her song and the potency of her glances, they +moved forward until they encircled the hill of waters. Then, with hiss +and roar, the river fell back to its level, submerging the whole tribe. +The music that haunts the bay, rising through the water when the moon is +out, is the sound of their revels in the caves below--dusky Tannhausers +of a southern Venusberg. An old priest, who was among them at the time of +this prodigy, feared that the want of result to his teachings was due to +his not being in a perfect state of grace. On his death-bed he declared +that if a priest would row to the spot where the music sounded, at +midnight on Christmas, and drop a crucifix into the water, he would +instantly be swallowed by the waves, but that every soul at the bottom +would be redeemed. The souls have never been ransomed. + + + + +THE SACRED FIRE OF NACHEZ + +The Indians of the South, being in contact with the civilized races of +Central America, were among the most progressive and honorable of the red +men. They were ruled by intelligence rather than force, and something of +the respect that Europeans feel for their kingly families made them +submit to woman's rule. The valley of Nacooche, Georgia, indeed, +perpetuates in its name one of these princesses of a royal house, for +though she ruled a large tribe with wisdom she was not impervious to the +passions of common mortals. The "Evening Star" died by her own hand, +being disappointed in love affair. Her story is that of Juliet, and she +and her lover--united in death, as they could not be in life--are buried +beneath a mound in the centre of he valley. + +The Indians of that region had towns built for permanency, and possessed +some knowledge of the arts, while in religion their belief and rites were +curiously like those of the Persian fire-worshippers. It was on the site +of the present city in Mississippi which bears their name that the +Natchez Indians built their Temple of the Sun. When it was finished a +meteor fell from heaven and kindled the fire on their altar, and from +that hour the priests guarded he flame continually, until one night when +it was extinguished by mischance. This event was believed to be an omen, +and the people so took it to heart that when the white men came, directly +after, they had little courage to prosecute a war, and fell back before +the conqueror, never to hold their ancient home again. + + + + +PASS CHRISTIAN + +Senhor Vineiro, a Portuguese, having wedded Julia Regalea, a Spaniard, in +South America, found it needful to his fortunes to leave Montevideo, for +a revolution was breeding, and no less needful to his happiness to take +his wife with him from that city, for he was old and she was young. But +he chose the wrong ship to sail on, for Captain Dane, of the Nightingale, +was also young, presentable, and well schooled, but heartless. On the +voyage to New Orleans he not only won the affection of the wife, but slew +the husband and flung his body overboard. Vainly the wife tried to +repress the risings of remorse, and vainly, too, she urged Dane to seek +absolution from her church. She had never loved her husband, and she had +loved Dane from the first, but she was not at heart a bad woman and her +peace was gone. The captain was disturbed and suspicious. His sailors +glanced at him out of the corners of their eyes in a way that he did not +like. Had the woman in some unintentional remark betrayed him? Could he +conceal his crime, save with a larger one? + +Pass Christian was a village then. On a winter night its people saw a +glare in the sky, and hurrying to their doors found a ship burning in the +gulf. Smacks and row-boats put off to the rescue, but hardly were they +under way ere the ship disappeared as suddenly as if the sea had +swallowed it. As the night was thick the boats returned, but next morning +five men were encountered on the shore-all that were left of the crew of +the Nightingale. Captain Dane was so hospitably received by the people of +the district, and seemed to take so great a liking for the place, that he +resolved to live there. He bought a plantation with a roomy old house +upon it and took his fellow-survivors there to live, as he hoped, an easy +life. That was not to be. Yellow fever struck down all the men but Dane, +and one of them, in dying, raved to his negro nurse that Dane had taken +all the treasure from the ship and put it into a boat, after serving grog +enough to intoxicate all save the trusted ones of the crew; that he and +his four associates fired the ship and rowed away, leaving an unhappy +woman to a horrible fate. Senhora Vineiro was pale but composed when she +saw the manner of death she was to die. She brought from her cabin a harp +which had been a solace of her husband and herself and began to play and +sing an air that some of the listeners remembered. It was an "Ave Maria," +and the sound of it was so plaintive that even Dane stopped rowing; but +he set his teeth when his shoe touched the box of gold at his feet and +ordered the men to row on. There was an explosion and the vessel +disappeared. On reaching shore the treasure was buried at the foot of a +large oak. + +This story was repeated by the nurse, but she was ignorant, she had no +proofs, so it was not generally believed; yet there was a perceptible +difference in the treatment of Dane by his neighbors, and among the +superstitious negroes it was declared that he had sold himself to the +devil. If he had, was it an air from hell that sounded in his ears when +he was alone?--the "Ave Maria" of a sinning but repentant woman. The +coldness and suspicion were more than he could stand. Besides, who could +tell? Evidence might be found against him. He would dig up his treasure +and fly the country. It was a year from the night when he had fired his +ship. Going out after dark, that none might see him, he stole to the tree +and began to dig. Presently a red light grew through the air, and looking +up he saw a flaming vessel advancing over the sea. It stopped, and he +could see men clambering into a boat at its side. They rowed toward him +with such miraculous speed that the ocean seemed to steam with a blue +light as they advanced. He stood like a stone, for now he could see the +faces of the rowers, and every one was the face of a corpse--a corpse +that had been left on board of that vessel and had been in the bottom of +the sea for the last twelvemonth. They sprang on shore and rushed upon +him. Next morning Dane's body was found beneath the oak with his hands +filled with gems and gold. + + + + +THE UNDER LAND + +When the Chatas looked into the still depths of Bayou Lacombe, Louisiana, +they said that the reflection of the sky was the empyrean of the Under +Land, whither all good souls were sure to go after death. Their chief, +Opaleeta, having fallen into this bayou, was so long beneath the water +that he was dead when his fellows found him, but by working over him for +hours, and through resort to prayers and incantations of medicine men, +his life returned and he stood on his feet once more. Then he grieved +that his friends had brought him back, for he had been at the gates of +the Under Land, where the air is blithe and balmy, and so nourishing that +people live on it; where it is never winter; where the sun shines +brightly, but never withers and parches; and where stars dance to the +swing of the breezes. There no white man comes to rob the Indian and +teach him to do wrong. Gorgeous birds fly through changing skies that +borrow the tints of flowers, the fields are spangled with blossoms of red +and blue and gold that load each wind with perfume, the grass is as fine +as the hair of deer, and the streams are thick with honey. + +At sunset those who loved each other in life are gathered to their +lodges, and raise songs of joy and thankfulness. Their voices are soft +and musical, their faces are young again and beam with smiles, and there +is no death. It was only the chiefs who heard his story, for, had all the +tribe known it, many who were old and ill and weary would have gone to +the bayou, and leaped in, to find that restful, happy Under Land. Those +who had gone before they sometimes tried to see, when the lake was still +and dappled with pictures of sunset clouds, but the dead never came +back--they kept away from the margin of the water lest they should be +called again to a life of toil and sorrow. And Opaleeta lived for many +years and ruled his tribe with wisdom, yet he shared in few of the +merry-makings of his people, and when, at last, his lodge was ready in +the Under Land, he gave up his life without a sigh. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lights And Shadows Of The South +by Charles M. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63e214c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #6610 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6610) diff --git a/old/cs05w10.txt b/old/cs05w10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9e8925 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cs05w10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1347 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, v5 +#5 in our series by Charles M. Skinner + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land (Lights And Shadows Of The South) + +Author: Charles M. Skinner + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6610] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 31, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS-LEGENDS, BY SKINNER, V5 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + + MYTHS AND LEGENDS + OF + OUR OWN LAND + + By + Charles M. Skinner + + Vol. 5. + + + LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH + + + + +CONTENTS: + +The Swim at Indian Head +The Moaning Sisters +A Ride for a Bride +Spooks of the Hiawassee +Lake of the Dismal Swamp +The Barge of Defeat +Natural Bridge +The Silence Broken +Siren of the French Broad +The Hunter of Calawassee +Revenge of the Accabee +Toccoa Falls +Two Lives for One +A Ghostly Avenger +The Wraith Ringer of Atlanta +The Swallowing Earthquake +The Last Stand of the Biloxi +The Sacred Fire of Natchez +Pass Christian +The Under Land + + + + + LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH + + + THE SWIM AT INDIAN HEAD + +At Indian Head, Maryland, are the government proving-grounds, where the +racket of great guns and splintering of targets are a deterrent to the +miscellaneous visitations of picnics. Trouble has been frequently +associated with this neighborhood, as it is now suggested in the noisy +symbolry of war. In prehistoric days it was the site of an aboriginal +town, whose denizens were like other Indians in their love for fight and +their willingness to shed blood. Great was the joy of all these +citizens when a scouting party came in, one day, bringing with them the +daughter of one of their toughest old hunters and a young buck, from +another faction, who had come a-courting; her in the neighboring shades. + +Capture meant death, usually, and he knew it, but he held himself +proudly and refused to ask for mercy. It was resolved that he should +die. The father's scorn for his daughter, that she should thus consort +with an enemy, was so great that he was on the point of offering her as +a joint sacrifice with her lover, when she fell on her knees before him +and began a fervent appeal, not for herself, but for the prisoner. She +would do anything to prove her strength, her duty, her obedience, if +they would set him free. He had done injury to none. What justice lay +in putting him to the torture? + +Half in earnest, half in humor, the chief answered, "Suppose we were to +set him on the farther shore of the Potomac, do you love him well enough +to swim to him?" + +"I do." + +"The river is wide and deep." + +"I would drown in it rather than that harm should come to him." + +The old chief ordered the captive, still bound, to be taken to a point +on the Virginia shore, full two miles away, in one of their canoes, and +when the boat was on the water he gave the word to the girl, who +instantly plunged in and followed it. The chief and the father embarked +in another birch--ostensibly to see that the task was honestly +fulfilled; really, perhaps, to see that the damsel did not drown. It +was a long course, but the maid was not as many of our city misses are, +and she reached the bank, tired, but happy, for she had saved her lover +and gained him for a husband. + + + + + THE MOANING SISTERS + +Above Georgetown, on the Potomac River, are three rocks, known as the +Three Sisters, not merely because of their resemblance to each other-- +for they are parts of a submerged reef--but because of a tradition that, +more than a hundred years ago, a boat in which three sisters had gone +out for a row was swung against one of these rocks. The day was gusty +and the boat was upset. All three of the girls were drowned. Either +the sisters remain about this perilous spot or the rocks have +prescience; at least, those who live near them on the shore hold one +view or the other, for they declare that before every death on the river +the sisters moan, the sound being heard above the lapping of the waves. +It is different from any other sound in nature. Besides, it is an +unquestioned fact that more accidents happen here than at any other +point on the river. + +Many are the upsets that have occurred and many are the swimmers who +have gone down, the dark forms of the sisters being the last shapes that +their water-blurred eyes have seen. It is only before a human life is +to be yielded that this low wailing comes from the rocks, and when, on a +night in May, 1889, the sound floated shoreward, just as the clock in +Georgetown struck twelve, good people who were awake sighed and uttered +a prayer for the one whose doom was so near at hand. Twelve hours +later, at noon, a shell came speeding down the Potomac, with a young +athlete jauntily pulling at the oars. As he neared the Three Sisters +his boat appeared to be caught in an eddy; it swerved suddenly, as if +struck; then it upset and the rower sank to his death. + + + + + A RIDE FOR A BRIDE + +When the story of bloodshed at Bunker Hill reached Bohemia Hall, in +Cecil County, Maryland, Albert De Courcy left his brother Ernest to +support the dignity of the house and make patriotic speeches, while he +went to the front, conscious that Helen Carmichael, his affianced wife, +was watching, in pride and sadness, the departure of his company. +Letters came and went, as they always do, until rumor came of a sore +defeat to the colonials at Long Island; then the letters ceased. + +It was a year later when a ragged soldier, who had stopped at the hall +for supper, told of Albert's heroism in covering the retreat of +Washington. The gallant young officer had been shot, he said, as he +attempted to swim the morasses of Gowanus. But this soldier was in +error. Albert had been vexatiously bogged on the edge of the creek. +While floundering in the mud a half dozen sturdy red-coats had lugged +him out and he was packed off to the prison-ships anchored in the +Wallabout. In these dread hulks, amid darkness and miasma, living on +scant, unwholesome food, compelled to see his comrades die by dozens +every day and their bodies flung ashore where the tide lapped away the +sand thrown over them, De Courcy wished that death instead of capture +had been his lot, for next to his love he prized his liberty. + +One day he was told off, with a handful of others, for transfer to a +stockade on the Delaware, and how his heart beat when he learned that +the new prison was within twenty miles of home! His flow of spirits +returned, and his new jailers liked him for his frankness and laughed at +his honest expletives against the king. He had the liberty of the +enclosure, and was not long in finding where the wall was low, the ditch +narrow, and the abatis decayed--knowledge that came useful to him sooner +than he expected, for one day a captured horse was led in that made +straight for him with a whinny and rubbed his nose against his breast. + +"Why!" he cried,--it's Cecil! My horse, gentlemen--or, was. Not a +better hunter in Maryland!" + +"Yes," answered one of the officers. We've just taken him from your +brother. He's been stirring trouble with his speeches and has got to be +quieted. But we'll have him to-day, for he's to be married, and a +scouting party is on the road to nab him at the altar." + +"Married! My brother! What! Ernest, the lawyer, the orator? Ho, ho! +Ah, but it's rather hard to break off a match in that style!" + +"Hard for him, maybe; but they say the lady feels no great love for him. +He made it seem like a duty to her, after her lover died." + +"How's that? Her own--what's her name?" + +"Helen--Helen Carmichael, or something like that." + +Field and sky swam before De Courcy's eyes for a moment; then he +resumed, in a calm voice, and with a pale, set face, "Well, you're +making an unhappy wedding-day for him. If he had Cecil here he would +outride you all. Ah, when I was in practice I could ride this horse and +snatch a pebble from the ground without losing pace!" + +"Could you do it now?" + +"I'm afraid long lodging in your prison-ships has stiffened my joints, +but I'd venture at a handkerchief." + +"Then try," said the commandant. + +De Courcy mounted into the saddle heavily, crossed the grounds at a +canter, and dropped a handkerchief on the grass. Then, taking a few +turns for practice, he started at a gallop and swept around like the +wind. His seat was so firm, his air so noble, his mastery of the steed +so complete, that a cheer of admiration went up. He seemed to fall +headlong from the saddle, but was up again in a moment, waving the +handkerchief gayly in farewell--for he kept straight on toward the weak +place in the wall. A couple of musket-balls hummed by his ears: it was +neck or nothing now! A tremendous leap! Then a ringing cry told the +astonished soldiers that he had reached the road in safety. Through +wood and thicket and field he dashed as if the fiend were after him, and +never once did he cease to urge his steed till he reached the turnpike, +and saw ahead the scouting party on its way to arrest his brother. + +Turning into a path that led to the rear of the little church they were +so dangerously near, he plied hands and heels afresh, and in a few +moments a wedding party was startled by the apparition of a black horse, +all in a foam, ridden by a gaunt man, in torn garments, that burst in at +the open chancel-door. The bridegroom cowered, for he knew his brother. +The bride gazed in amazement. "'Tis the dead come to life!" cried one. +De Courcy had little time for words. He rode forward to the altar, +swung Helen up behind him, and exclaimed, "Save yourselves! The British +are coming! To horse, every one, and make for the manor!" There were +shrieks and fainting--and perhaps a little cursing, even if it was in +church,--and when the squadron rode up most of the company were in full +flight. Ernest was taken, and next morning held his brother's place on +the prison-list, while, as arrangements had been made for a wedding, +there was one, and a happy one, but Albert was the bridegroom. + + + + + + SPOOKS OF THE HIAWASSEE + +The hills about the head of the Hiawassee are filled with "harnts," +among them many animal ghosts, that ravage about the country from sheer +viciousness. The people of the region, illiterate and superstitious, +have unquestioning faith in them. They tell you about the headless bull +and black dog of the valley of the Chatata, the white stag of the +Sequahatchie, and the bleeding horse of the Great Smoky Mountains--the +last three being portents of illness, death, or misfortune to those who +see them. + +Other ghosts are those of men. Near the upper Hiawassee is a cave where +a pile of human skulls was found by a man who had put up his cabin near +the entrance. For some reason, which he says he never understood, this +farmer gathered up the old, bleached bones and dumped them into his +shed. Quite possibly he did not dare to confess that he wanted them for +fertilizers or to burn them for his poultry. + +Night fell dark and still, with a waning moon rising over the mountains +--as calm a night as ever one slept through. Along toward the middle of +it a sound like the coming of a cyclone brought the farmer out of his +bed. He ran to the window to see if the house were to be uprooted, but +the forest was still, with a strange, oppressive stillness--not a twig +moving, not a cloud veiling the stars, not an insect chirping. Filled +with a vague fear, he tried to waken his wife, but she was like one in a +state of catalepsy. + +Again the sound was heard, and now he saw, without, a shadowy band +circling about his house like leaves whirled on the wind. It seemed to +be made of human shapes, with tossing arms--this circling band--and the +sound was that of many voices, each faint and hollow, by itself, but +loud in aggregate. He who was watching realized then that the wraiths +of the dead whose skulls he had purloined from their place of sepulture +were out in lament and protest. He went on his knees at once and prayed +with vigor until morning. As soon as it was light enough to see his way +he replaced the skulls, and was not troubled by the "haunts" again. All +the gold in America, said he, would not tempt him to remove any more +bones from the cave-tombs of the unknown dead. + + + + + LAKE OF THE DISMAL SWAMP + +Drummond's Pond, or the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, is a dark and lonely +tarn that lies in the centre of this noted Virginia morass. It is, in a +century-old tradition, the Styx of two unhappy ghosts that await the end +of time to pass its confines and enjoy the sunshine of serener worlds. +A young woman of a family that had settled near this marsh died of a +fever caused by its malarial exhalations, and was buried near the swamp. +The young man to whom she was betrothed felt her loss so keenly that for +days he neither ate nor slept, and at last broke down in mind and body. +He recovered a measure of physical health, after a time, but his reason +was hopelessly lost. + +It was his hallucination that the girl was not dead, but had been exiled +to the lonely reaches of this watery wilderness. He was heard to +mutter, "I'll find her, and when Death comes I'll hide her in the hollow +of a cypress until he passes on." Evading restraint, he plunged into +the fen, and for some days he wandered there, eating berries, sleeping +on tussocks of grass, with water-snakes crawling over him and poisonous +plants shedding their baneful dew on his flesh. He came to the lake at +last. A will-o'the-wisp played along the surface. "'Tis she!" he +cried. "I see her, standing in the light." Hastily fashioning a raft +of cypress boughs he floated it and pushed toward the centre of the +pond, but the eagerness of his efforts and the rising of a wind +dismembered the frail platform, and he fell into the black water to rise +no more. But often, in the night, is seen the wraith of a canoe, with a +fire-fly lamp burning on its prow, restlessly urged to and fro by two +figures that seem to be vainly searching for an exit from the place, and +that are believed to be those of the maiden and her lover. + + + + + THE BARGE OF DEFEAT + +Rappannock River, in Virginia, used to be vexed with shadowy craft that +some of the populace affirmed to be no boats, but spirits in disguise. +One of these apparitions was held in fear by the Democracy of Essex +County, as it was believed to be a forerunner of Republican victory. +The first recorded appearance of the vessel was shortly after the Civil +War, on the night of a Democratic mass-meeting at Tappahannock. There +were music, refreshments, and jollity, and it was in the middle of a +rousing speech that a man in the crowd cried, "Look, fellows! What is +that queer concern going down the river?" + +The people moved to the shore, and by the light of their torches a hulk +was seen drifting with the stream--a hulk of fantastic form unlike +anything that sails there in the daytime. As it came opposite the +throng, the torchlight showed gigantic negroes who danced on deck, +showing horrible faces to the multitude. Not a sound came from the +barge, the halloos of the spectators bringing no response, and some +boatmen ventured into the stream, only to pull back in a hurry, for the +craft had become so strangely enveloped in shadow that it seemed to melt +into air. + +Next day the Democracy was defeated at the polls, chiefly by the negro +vote. In 1880 it reappeared, and, as before, the Republicans gained the +day. Just before the election of 1886, Mr. Croxton, Democratic nominee +for Congress, was haranguing the people, when the cry of "The Black +Barge!" arose. Argument and derision were alike ineffectual with the +populace. The meeting broke up in silence and gloom, and Mr. Croxton +was defeated by a majority of two thousand. + + + + + NATURAL BRIDGE + +Though several natural bridges are known in this country, there is but +one that is famous the world over, and that is the one which spans Clear +Creek, Virginia--the remnant of a cave-roof, all the rest of the cavern +having collapsed. It is two hundred and fifteen feet above the water, +and is a solid mass of rock forty feet thick, one hundred feet wide, and +ninety feet in span. Thomas Jefferson owned it; George Washington +scaled its side and carved his name on the rock a foot higher than any +one else. Here, too, came the youth who wanted to cut his name above +Washington's, and who found, to his horror, when half-way up, that he +must keep on, for he had left no resting-places for his feet at safe and +reachable distances--who, therefore, climbed on and on, cutting handhold +and foothold in the limestone until he reached the top, in a fainting +state, his knife-blade worn to a stump. Here, too, in another tunnel of +the cavern, flows Lost River, that all must return to, at some time, if +they drink of it. Here, beneath the arch, is the dark stain, so like a +flying eagle that the French officer who saw it during the Revolution +augured from it a success for the united arms of the nations that used +the eagle as their symbol. + +The Mohegans knew this wonder of natural masonry, for to this point they +were pursued by a hostile tribe, and on reaching the gulf found +themselves on the edge of a precipice that was too steep at that point +to descend. Behind them was the foe; before them, the chasm. At the +suggestion of one of their medicine-men they joined in a prayer to the +Great Spirit for deliverance, and when again they looked about them, +there stood the bridge. Their women were hurried over; then, like so +many Horatii, they formed across this dizzy highway and gave battle. +Encouraged by the knowledge that they had a safe retreat in case of +being overmastered, they fought with such heart that the enemy was +defeated, and the grateful Mohegans named the place the Bridge of God. + + + + + THE SILENCE BROKEN + +It was in 1734 that Joist Hite moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia, with +his wife and boys, and helped to make a settlement on the Shenandoah +twelve miles south of Woodstock. When picking berries at a distance +from the village, one morning, the boys were surprised by Indians, who +hurried with them into the wilderness before their friends could be +apprised. Aaron, the elder, was strong, and big of frame, with coarse, +black hair, and face tanned brown; but his brother was small and fair, +with blue eyes and yellow locks, and it was doubtless because he was a +type of the hated white race that the Indians spent their blows and +kicks on him and spared the sturdy one. Aaron was wild with rage at the +injuries put upon his gentle brother, but he was bound and helpless, and +all that he could do was to encourage him to bear a stout heart and not +to fall behind. + +But Peter was too delicate to keep up, and there came a day when he +could go no farther. The red men consulted for a few moments, then all +of them stood apart but one, who fitted an arrow to his bow. The +child's eyes grew big with fear, and Aaron tore at his bonds, but +uselessly, and shouted that he would take the victim's place, but no +one understood his speech, and in another moment Peter lay dead on the +earth, with an arrow in his heart. Aaron gave one cry of hate and +despair, and he, too, sank unconscious. On coming to himself he found +that he was in a hut of boughs, attended by an old Indian, who told him +in rude English that he was recovering from an illness of several weeks' +duration, and that it was the purpose of his tribe to adopt him. When +the lad tried to protest he found to his amazement that he could not +utter a sound, and he learned from the Indian that the fever had taken +away his tongue. In the dulness and weakness of his state he submitted +to be clothed in Indian dress, smeared with a juice that browned his +skin, and greeted by his brother's slayers as one of themselves. When +he looked into a pool he found that he had, to all intents, become an +Indian. In time he became partly reconciled to this change, for he did +not know and could not ask where the white settlements lay; his +appearance and his inability to speak would prevent his recognition by +his friends, the red men were not unkind to him, and every boy likes a +free and out-door life. They taught him to shoot with bow and arrow, +but they kept him back if a white settlement was to be plundered. + +Three years had elapsed, and Aaron, grown tall and strong, was a good +hunter who stood in favor with the tribe. They had roamed back to the +neighborhood of Woodstock, when, at a council, Aaron overheard a plot to +fall on the village where his parents lived. He begged, by signs, to be +allowed to go with them, and, believing that he could now be trusted, +they offered no objection. Stoic as he had grown to be, he could not +repress a tear as he saw his old home and thought of the peril that it +stood in. If only he could give an alarm! The Indians retired into the +forest to cook their food where the smoke could not be seen, while Aaron +lingered at the edge of the wood and prayed for opportunity. He was not +disappointed. Two girls came up through the perfumed dusk, driving cows +from the pasture, and as they drew near, Aaron, pretending not to see +them, crawled out of the bush with his weapons, and made a show of +stealthily examining the town. The girls came almost upon him and +screamed, while he dashed into the wood in affected surprise and +regained the camp. The Indians had heard and seen nothing. The girls +would surely give the alarm in town. + +One by one the lights of the village went out, and when it seemed locked +in sleep the red marauders crept toward the nearest house--that of Joist +Hite. They arose together and rushed upon it, but at that moment a gun +was fired, an Indian fell, and in a few seconds more the settlers, whom +the girls had not failed to put on their guard, were hurrying from their +hiding-places, firing into the astonished crowd of savages, who dashed +for the woods again, leaving a dozen of their number on the ground. +Aaron remained quietly standing near his father's house, and he was +captured, as he hoped to be. When he saw how his parents had aged with +time and grief he could not repress a tear, but to his grief was added +terror when his father, after looking him steadily in the eye without +recognition, began to load a pistol. "They killed my boys," said he, +"and I am going to kill him. Bind him to that tree." + +In vain the mother pleaded for mercy; in vain the dumb boy's eyes +appealed to his father's. He was not afraid to die, and would do so +gladly to have saved the settlement; but to die by his father's band! +He could not endure it. He was bound to a tree, with the light of a +fire shining into his face. + +The old man, with hard determination, raised the weapon and aimed it +slowly at the boy's heart. A surge of feeling shook the frame of the +captive--he threw his whole life into the effort--then the silence of +three years was broken, and he cried, "Father!" A moment later his +parents were sobbing joyfully, and he could speak to them once more. + + + + + SIREN OF THE FRENCH BROAD + +Among the rocks east of Asheville, North Carolina, lives the Lorelei of +the French Broad River. This stream--the Tselica of the Indians-- +contains in its upper reaches many pools where the rapid water whirls +and deepens, and where the traveller likes to pause in the heats of +afternoon and drink and bathe. Here, from the time when the Cherokees +occupied the country, has lived the siren, and if one who is weary and +downcast sits beside the stream or utters a wish to rest in it, he +becomes conscious of a soft and exquisite music blending with the plash +of the wave. + +Looking down in surprise he sees--at first faintly, then with +distinctness--the form of a beautiful woman, with hair streaming like +moss and dark eyes looking into his, luring him with a power he cannot +resist. His breath grows short, his gaze is fixed, mechanically he +rises, steps to the brink, and lurches forward into the river. The arms +that catch him are slimy and cold as serpents; the face that stares into +his is a grinning skull. A loud, chattering laugh rings through the +wilderness, and all is still again. + + + + + THE HUNTER OF CALAWASSEE + +Through brisk November days young Kedar and his trusty slave, Lauto, +hunted along the Calawassee, with hope to get a shot at a buck--a buck +that wore a single horn and that eluded them with easy, baffling gait +whenever they met it in the fens. Kedar was piqued at this. He drained +a deep draught and buttoned his coat with an air of resolution. "Now, +by my soul," quoth he, "I'll have that buck to-day or die myself!" Then +he laughed at the old slave, who begged him to unsay the oath, for there +was something unusual about that animal--as it ran it left no tracks, +and it passed through the densest wood without halting at trees or +undergrowth. "Bah!" retorted the huntsman. "Have up the dogs. If that +buck is the fiend himself, I'll have him before the day is out!" The +twain were quickly in their saddles, and they had not been long in the +wood before the one-horned buck was seen ahead, trotting with easy pace, +yet with marvellous swiftness. + +Kedar, who was in advance, whipped up his horse and followed the deer +into a cypress grove near the Chechesee. As the game halted at a pool +he fired. The report sounded dead in the dense wood, and the deer +turned calmly, watched his pursuer until he was close at hand, then +trotted away again. All day long he held the chase. The dogs were +nowhere within sound, and he galloped through the forest, shouting and +swearing like a very devil, beating and spurring the horse until the +poor creature's head and flanks were reddened with blood. It was just +at sunset that Kedar found himself again on the bank of the Calawassee, +near the point he had left in the morning, and heard once more the +baying of his hounds. At last his prey seemed exhausted, and, swimming +the river, it ran into a thicket on the opposite side and stood still. +"Now I have him!" cried the hunter. "Hillio, Lauto! He's mine!" The +old negro heard the call and hastened forward. He heard his master's +horse floundering in the swamp that edged the river--then came a plash, +a curse, and as the slave arrived at the margin a few bubbles floated on +the sluggish current. The deer stood in the thicket, staring with eyes +that blazed through the falling darkness, and, with a wail of fear and +sorrow, old Lauto fled the spot. + + + + + REVENGE OF THE ACCABEE + +The settlement made by Lord Cardross, near Beaufort, South Carolina, was +beset by Spaniards and Indians, who laid it in ashes and slew every +person in it but one. She, a child of thirteen, had supposed the young +chief of the Accabees to be her father, as he passed in the smoke, and +had thrown herself into his arms. The savage raised his axe to strike, +but, catching her blue eye raised to his, more in grief and wonder than +alarm, the menacing hand fell to his side, and, tossing the girl lightly +to a seat on his shoulder, he strode off into the forest. Mile after +mile he bore her, and if she slept he held her to his breast as a father +holds a babe. When she awoke it was in his lodge on the Ashley, and he +was smiling in her face. The chief became her protector; but those who +marked, with the flight of time, how his fierceness had softened, knew +that she was more to him than a daughter. Years passed, the girl had +grown to womanhood, and her captor declared himself her lover. She +seemed not ill pleased at this, for she consented to be his wife. After +the betrothal the chief joined a hunting party and was absent for a +time. On his return the girl was gone. A trader who had been bartering +merchandise for furs had seen her, had been inspired by passion, and, +favored by suave manners and a white skin, he had won in a day a +stronger affection than the Indian could claim after years of loving +watchfulness. + +When this discovery was made the chief, without a word, set off on the +trail, and by broken twig, by bended grass and footprints at the brook- +edge, he followed their course until he found them resting beneath a +tree. The girl sprang from her new lover's arms with a cry of fear as +the savage, with knife and tomahawk girt upon him, stepped into view, +and she would have clasped his knees, but he motioned her away; then, +ordering them to continue their march, he went behind them until they +had reached a fertile spot on the Ashley, near the present site of +Charleston, where he halted. "Though guilty, you shall not die," said +he to the woman; then, to his rival, "You shall marry her, and a white +priest shall join your hands. Here is your future home. I give you +many acres of my land, but look that you care for her. As I have been +merciful to you, do good to her. If you treat her ill, I shall not be +far away." + +The twain were married and went to live on the acres that had been so +generously ceded to them, and for a time all went well; but the true +disposition of the husband, which was sullen and selfish, soon began to +disclose itself; disagreements arose, then quarrels; at last the man +struck his wife, and, seizing the deed of the Accabee land and a paper +that he had forced her to sign without knowing its contents, he started +for the settlements, intending to sell the property and sail for +England. On the edge of the village his flight was stayed by a tall +form that arose in his path-that of the Indian. "I gave you all," said +the chief, "the woman who should have been my wife, and then my land. +This is your thanks. You shall go no farther." + +With a quick stroke of the axe he cleft the skull of the shrinking +wretch, and then, cutting off his scalp, the Indian ran to the cottage +where sat the abandoned wife, weeping before the embers of her fire. +He roused her by tossing on fresh fuel, but she shrank back in grief and +shame when she saw who had come to her. Do not fear," he said. "The +man who struck you meant to sell your home to strangers"--and he laid +the deed of sale before her, but he will never play you false or lay +hands on you again. Look!" He tossed the dripping scalp upon the +paper. "Now I leave you forever. I cannot take you back among my +people, who do not know deceit like yours, nor could I ever love you as +I did at first." Turning, without other farewell he went out at the +door. When this gift of Accabee land was sold--for the woman could no +longer bear to live on it, but went to a northern city--a handsome house +was built by the new owner, who added game preserves and pleasure +grounds to the estate, but it was "haunted by a grief." Illness and ill +luck followed the purchase, and the house fell into ruin. + + + + + TOCCOA FALLS + +Early in the days of the white occupation of Georgia a cabin stood not +far from the Falls of Toccoa (the Beautiful). Its only occupant was a +feeble woman, who found it ill work to get food enough from the wild +fruits and scanty clearing near the house, and she had nigh forgotten +the taste of meat; for her two sons, who were her pride no less than her +support, had been killed by savages. She often said that she would +gladly die if she could harm the red men back, in return for her +suffering--which was not Christian doctrine, but was natural. She was +brooding at her fire, one winter evening, in wonder as to how one so +weak and old as she could be revenged, when her door was flung open and +a number of red men filled her cabin. She hardly changed countenance. +She did not rise. "You may take my life," she said, "for it is useless, +now that you have robbed it of all that made it worth living." + +"Hush!" said the chief. "What does the warrior want with the scalps of +women? We war on your men because they kill our game and steal our +land." + +"Is it possible that you come to our homes except to kill?" + +"We are strangers and have lost our way. You must guide us to the foot +of Toccoa and lead us to our friends." + +"I lead you? Never!" + +The chief raised his axe, but the woman did not flinch. There was a +pause, in which the iron still hung menacing. Suddenly the dame looked +up and said, "If you promise to protect me, I will lead you." + +The promise was given and the band set forth, the aged guide in advance, +bending against the storm and clasping her poor rags about her. In the +darkest part of the wood, where the roaring of wind and groaning of +branches seemed the louder for the booming of waters, she cautioned the +band to keep in single file, but to make haste, for the way was far and +the gloom was thickening. Bending their heads against the wind they +pressed forward, she in advance. Suddenly, yet stealthily, she sprang +aside and crouched beneath a tree that grew at the very brink of the +fall. The Indians came on, following blindly, and in an instant she +descried the leader as he went whirling over the edge, and one after +another the party followed. When the last had gone to his death she +arose to her feet with a laugh of triumph. "Now I, too, can die!" she +cried. So saying, she fell forward into the grayness of space. + + + + TWO LIVES FOR ONE + +The place of Macon, Georgia, in the early part of this century was +marked only by an inn. One of its guests was a man who had stopped +there on the way to Alabama, where he had bought land. The girl who +was, to be his wife was to follow in a few days. In the morning when he +paid his reckoning he produced a well-filled pocket-book, and he did not +see the significant look that passed between two rough black-bearded +fellows who had also spent the night there, and who, when he set forth, +mounted their horses and offered to keep him company. As they rode +through the deserted village of Chilicte one of the twain engaged the +traveller in talk while the other, falling a little behind, dealt him a +blow with a loaded whip that unseated him. Divining their purpose, and +lacking weapons for his own defence, he begged for mercy, and asked to +be allowed to return to his bride to be, but the robbers had already +made themselves liable to penalty, and two knife-thrusts in the breast +silenced his appeals. The money was secured, the body was dropped into +a hollow where the wolves would be likely to find and mangle it, and the +outlaws went on their way. + +Men of their class do not keep money long, and when the proceeds of the +robbery had been wasted at cards and in drink they separated. As in +fulfilment of the axiom that a murderer is sure to revisit the scene of +his crime, one of the men found himself at the Ocmulgee, a long time +afterward, in sight of the new town--Macon. In response to his halloo a +skiff shot forth from the opposite shore, and as it approached the bank +he felt a stir in his hair and a touch of ice at his heart, for the +ferryman was his victim of years ago. Neither spoke a word, but the +criminal felt himself forced to enter the boat when the dead man waved +his hand, and he was rowed across, his horse swimming beside the skiff. +As the jar of the keel was felt on the gravel he leaped out, urged his +horse to the road, sprang to the saddle, and rushed away in an agony of +fear, that was heightened when a hollow voice called, "Stay!" + +After a little he slackened pace, and a farmer, who was standing at the +roadside, asked, in astonishment, "How did you get across? There is a +freshet, and the ferryman was drowned last night." With a new thrill he +spurred his horse forward, and made no other halt until he reached the +tavern, where he fell in a faint on the steps, for the strain was no +longer to be endured. A crowd gathered, but he did not see it when he +awoke--he saw only one pair of eyes, that seemed to be looking into his +inmost soul--the eyes of the man he had slain. With a yell of terror +and of insane fury he rushed upon the ghost and thrust a knife into its +breast. The frenzy passed. It was no ghost that lay on the earth +before him, staring up with sightless eyes. It was his fellow-murderer +--his own brother. That night the assassin's body hung from a tree at +the cross-roads. + + + + + A GHOSTLY AVENGER + +In Cuthbert, Georgia, is a gravestone thus inscribed: "Sacred to the +memory of Jim Brown." No date, no epitaph--for Jim Brown was hanged. +And this is the story: At the close of the Civil War a company of +Federal soldiers was stationed in Cuthbert, to enforce order pending the +return of its people to peaceful occupations. Charles Murphy was a +lieutenant in this company. His brother, an officer quartered in a +neighboring town, was sent to Cuthbert one day to receive funds for the +payment of some men, and left camp toward evening to return to his +troop. That night Charles Murphy was awakened by a violent flapping of +his tent. It sounded as though a gale was coming, but when he arose to +make sure that the pegs and poles of his canvas house were secure, the +noise ceased, and he was surprised to find that the air was clear and +still. On returning to bed the flapping began again, and this time he +dressed himself and went out to make a more careful examination. In the +shadow of a tree a man stood beckoning. It was his brother, who, in a +low, grave voice, told him that he was in trouble, and asked him to +follow where he should lead him. The lieutenant walked swiftly through +fields and woods for some miles with his relative--he had at once +applied for and received a leave of absence for a few hours--and they +descended together a slope to the edge of a swamp, where he stumbled +against something. Looking down at the object on which he had tripped, +he saw that it was his brother's corpse--not newly dead, but cold and +rigid--the pockets rifled, the clothing soaked with mire and blood. + +Dazed and terrified, he returned to camp, roused some of his men, and at +daybreak secured the body. An effort to gain a clue to the murderer was +at once set on foot. It was not long before evidence was secured that +led to the arrest of Jim Brown, and there was a hint that his +responsibility for the crime was revealed through the same supernatural +agency that had apprised Lieutenant Murphy of his bereavement. Brown +was an ignorant farm laborer, who had conceived that it was right to +kill Yankees, and whose cupidity had been excited by learning that the +officer had money concealed about him. He had offered, for a trifling +sum, to take his victim by a short cut to his camp, but led him to the +swamp instead, where he had shot him through the heart. On the +culprit's arrival in Cuthbert he was lynched by the soldiers, but was +cut down by their commander before life was extinct, and was formally +and conclusively hanged in the next week, after trial and conviction. + + + + + THE WRAITH RINGER OF ATLANTA + +A man was killed in Elliott Street, Atlanta, Georgia, by a cowardly +stroke from a stiletto. The assassin escaped. Strange what a humming +there was in the belfry of St. Michael's Church that night! Had the +murderer taken refuge there? Was it a knell for his lost soul, chasing +him through the empty streets and beginning already an eternal +punishment of terror? Perhaps the guilty one did not dare to leave +Atlanta, for the chimes sang in minor chords on several nights after. +The old policeman who kept ward in an antiquated guardhouse that stood +opposite the church--it was afterward shaken down by earthquake--said +that he saw a human form, which he would avouch to be that of the +murdered man, though it was wrapped in a cloak, stalk to the doors, +enter without opening them, glide up the winding stair, albeit he bent +neither arm nor knee, pass the ropes by which the chimes were rung, and +mount to the belfry. He could see the shrouded figure standing beneath +the gloomy mouths of metal. It extended its bony hands to the tongues +of the bells and swung them from side to side, but while they appeared +to strike vigorously they seemed as if muffled, and sent out only a low, +musical roar, as if they were rung by the wind. Was the murderer abroad +on those nights? Did he, too, see that black shadow of his victim in +the belfry sounding an alarm to the sleeping town and appealing to be +avenged? It may be. At all events, the apparition boded ill to others, +for, whenever the chimes were rung by spectral hands, mourners gathered +at some bedside within hearing of them and lamented that the friend they +had loved would never know them more on earth. + + + + + THE SWALLOWING EARTHQUAKE + +The Indian village that in 1765 stood just below the site of Oxford, +Alabama, was upset when the news was given out that two of the squaws +had given simultaneous birth to a number of children that were spotted +like leopards. Such an incident betokened the existence of some baneful +spirit among them that had no doubt leagued itself with the women, who +were at once tried on the charge of witchcraft, convicted, and sentenced +to death at the stake, while a watch was to be set on the infants, so +early orphaned, lest they, too, should show signs of malevolent +possession. The whole tribe, seventeen hundred in number, assembled to +see the execution, but hardly were the fires alight when a sound like +thunder rolled beneath their feet, and with a hideous crack and groan +the earth opened and nearly every soul was engulfed in a fathomless and +smoking pit-all, indeed, save two, for a couple of young braves who were +on the edge of the crowd flung themselves flat on the heaving ground and +remained there until the earthquake wave had passed. The hollow +afterward filled with water and was called Blue Pond. It is popularly +supposed to be fathomless, but it was shown that a forest once spread +across the bottom, when, but a few years ago, a great tree arose from +the water, lifting first its branches, then turning so as to show its +roots above the surface, and afterward disappeared. + + + + + LAST STAND OF THE BILOXI + +The southern part of this country was once occupied by a people called +the Biloxi, who had kept pace with the Aztecs in civilization and who +cultivated especially the art of music. In lives of gentleness and +peace they so soon forgot the use of arms that when the Choctaws +descended on their fields they were powerless to prevent the onset. +Town after town they evacuated before the savages, and at last the +Biloxi, reduced to a few thousands, were driven to the mouth of the +Pascagoula River, Mississippi, where they intrenched themselves, and for +a few months withstood the invaders. But the time came when their +supplies were exhausted, and every form was pinched with hunger. Flight +was impossible. Surrender commonly meant slaughter and outrage. They +resolved to die together. + +On a fair spring morning the river-ward gates of their fort were opened +and the survivors of that hapless tribe marched forth, their chief in +advance, with resolution on his wasted face, then the soldiers and +counsellors, the young men, the women and children, and the babes asleep +on the empty breasts of their mothers. As they emerged from the walls +with slow but steady step they broke into song, and their assailants, +who had retired to their tents for their meal, listened with surprise to +the chorus of defiance and rejoicing set up by the starving people. +Without pause or swerving they entered the bay and kept their march. +Now the waters closed over the chief, then the soldiers--at last only a +few voices of women were heard in the chant, and in a few moments all +was still. Not one shrank from the sacrifice. And for years after the +echo of that death-song floated over he waves. + +Another version of the legend sets forth that the Biloxi believed +themselves the children of the sea, and that they worshipped the image +of a lovely mermaid with wondrous music. After the Spaniards had come +among this gay and gentle people, they compelled them, by tyranny and +murder, to accept the religion of the white man, but of course it was +only lip-service that they rendered at the altar. The Biloxi were +awakened one night by the sound of wings and the rising of the river. +Going forth they saw the waters of Pascagoula heaped in a quivering +mound, and bright on its moonlit crest stood a mermaid that sang to +them, "Come to me, children of the sea. Neither bell, book, nor cross +shall win you from your queen." Entranced by her song and the potency +of her glances, they moved forward until they encircled the hill of +waters. Then, with hiss and roar, the river fell back to its level, +submerging the whole tribe. The music that haunts the bay, rising +through the water when the moon is out, is the sound of their revels in +the caves below--dusky Tannhausers of a southern Venusberg. An old +priest, who was among them at the time of this prodigy, feared that the +want of result to his teachings was due to his not being in a perfect +state of grace. On his death-bed he declared that if a priest would row +to the spot where the music sounded, at midnight on Christmas, and drop +a crucifix into the water, he would instantly be swallowed by the waves, +but that every soul at the bottom would be redeemed. The souls have +never been ransomed. + + + + THE SACRED FIRE OF NACHEZ + +The Indians of the South, being in contact with the civilized races of +Central America, were among the most progressive and honorable of the +red men. They were ruled by intelligence rather than force, and +something of the respect that Europeans feel for their kingly families +made them submit to woman's rule. The valley of Nacooche, Georgia, +indeed, perpetuates in its name one of these princesses of a royal +house, for though she ruled a large tribe with wisdom she was not +impervious to the passions of common mortals. The "Evening Star" died by +her own hand, being disappointed in love affair. Her story is that of +Juliet, and she and her lover--united in death, as they could not be in +life--are buried beneath a mound in the centre of he valley. + +The Indians of that region had towns built for permanency, and possessed +some knowledge of the arts, while in religion their belief and rites +were curiously like those of the Persian fire-worshippers. It was on +the site of the present city in Mississippi which bears their name that +the Natchez Indians built their Temple of the Sun. When it was finished +a meteor fell from heaven and kindled the fire on their altar, and from +that hour the priests guarded he flame continually, until one night when +it was extinguished by mischance. This event was believed to be an +omen, and the people so took it to heart that when the white men came, +directly after, they had little courage to prosecute a war, and fell +back before the conqueror, never to hold their ancient home again. + + + + + PASS CHRISTIAN + +Senhor Vineiro, a Portuguese, having wedded Julia Regalea, a Spaniard, +in South America, found it needful to his fortunes to leave Montevideo, +for a revolution was breeding, and no less needful to his happiness to +take his wife with him from that city, for he was old and she was young. +But he chose the wrong ship to sail on, for Captain Dane, of the +Nightingale, was also young, presentable, and well schooled, but +heartless. On the voyage to New Orleans he not only won the affection +of the wife, but slew the husband and flung his body overboard. Vainly +the wife tried to repress the risings of remorse, and vainly, too, she +urged Dane to seek absolution from her church. She had never loved her +husband, and she had loved Dane from the first, but she was not at heart +a bad woman and her peace was gone. The captain was disturbed and +suspicious. His sailors glanced at him out of the corners of their eyes +in a way that he did not like. Had the woman in some unintentional +remark betrayed him? Could he conceal his crime, save with a larger +one? + +Pass Christian was a village then. On a winter night its people saw a +glare in the sky, and hurrying to their doors found a ship burning in +the gulf. Smacks and row-boats put off to the rescue, but hardly were +they under way ere the ship disappeared as suddenly as if the sea had +swallowed it. As the night was thick the boats returned, but next +morning five men were encountered on the shore-all that were left of the +crew of the Nightingale. Captain Dane was so hospitably received by the +people of the district, and seemed to take so great a liking for the +place, that he resolved to live there. He bought a plantation with a +roomy old house upon it and took his fellow-survivors there to live, as +he hoped, an easy life. That was not to be. Yellow fever struck down +all the men but Dane, and one of them, in dying, raved to his negro +nurse that Dane had taken all the treasure from the ship and put it into +a boat, after serving grog enough to intoxicate all save the trusted +ones of the crew; that he and his four associates fired the ship and +rowed away, leaving an unhappy woman to a horrible fate. Senhora +Vineiro was pale but composed when she saw the manner of death she was +to die. She brought from her cabin a harp which had been a solace of +her husband and herself and began to play and sing an air that some of +the listeners remembered. It was an "Ave Maria," and the sound of it +was so plaintive that even Dane stopped rowing; but he set his teeth +when his shoe touched the box of gold at his feet and ordered the men to +row on. There was an explosion and the vessel disappeared. On reaching +shore the treasure was buried at the foot of a large oak. + +This story was repeated by the nurse, but she was ignorant, she had no +proofs, so it was not generally believed; yet there was a perceptible +difference in the treatment of Dane by his neighbors, and among the +superstitious negroes it was declared that he had sold himself to the +devil. If he had, was it an air from hell that sounded in his ears when +he was alone?--the "Ave Maria" of a sinning but repentant woman. The +coldness and suspicion were more than he could stand. Besides, who +could tell? Evidence might be found against him. He would dig up his +treasure and fly the country. It was a year from the night when he had +fired his ship. Going out after dark, that none might see him, he stole +to the tree and began to dig. Presently a red light grew through the +air, and looking up he saw a flaming vessel advancing over the sea. It +stopped, and he could see men clambering into a boat at its side. They +rowed toward him with such miraculous speed that the ocean seemed to +steam with a blue light as they advanced. He stood like a stone, for +now he could see the faces of the rowers, and every one was the face of +a corpse--a corpse that had been left on board of that vessel and had +been in the bottom of the sea for the last twelvemonth. They sprang on +shore and rushed upon him. Next morning Dane's body was found beneath +the oak with his hands filled with gems and gold. + + + + + THE UNDER LAND + +When the Chatas looked into the still depths of Bayou Lacombe, +Louisiana, they said that the reflection of the sky was the empyrean of +the Under Land, whither all good souls were sure to go after death. +Their chief, Opaleeta, having fallen into this bayou, was so long +beneath the water that he was dead when his fellows found him, but +by working over him for hours, and through resort to prayers and +incantations of medicine men, his life returned and he stood on his feet +once more. Then he grieved that his friends had brought him back, for +he had been at the gates of the Under Land, where the air is blithe and +balmy, and so nourishing that people live on it; where it is never +winter; where the sun shines brightly, but never withers and parches; +and where stars dance to the swing of the breezes. There no white man +comes to rob the Indian and teach him to do wrong. Gorgeous birds fly +through changing skies that borrow the tints of flowers, the fields are +spangled with blossoms of red and blue and gold that load each wind with +perfume, the grass is as fine as the hair of deer, and the streams are +thick with honey. + +At sunset those who loved each other in life are gathered to their +lodges, and raise songs of joy and thankfulness. Their voices are soft +and musical, their faces are young again and beam with smiles, and there +is no death. It was only the chiefs who heard his story, for, had all +the tribe known it, many who were old and ill and weary would have gone +to the bayou, and leaped in, to find that restful, happy Under Land. +Those who had gone before they sometimes tried to see, when the lake was +still and dappled with pictures of sunset clouds, but the dead never +came back--they kept away from the margin of the water lest they should +be called again to a life of toil and sorrow. And Opaleeta lived for +many years and ruled his tribe with wisdom, yet he shared in few of the +merry-makings of his people, and when, at last, his lodge was ready in +the Under Land, he gave up his life without a sigh. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS-LEGENDS, BY SKINNER, V5 *** + +********* This file should be named cs05w10.txt or cs05w10.zip ********* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, cs05w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, cs05w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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