FOLKLORE OF THE ALLEGHANIES. 391 



and tlie human prisoners in their cabins, huddling around the wood 

 fires, are nearly always, as they express it, " short of " some article 

 which would be considered a necessity in the average city home. 



The varying, defiant, and incalculable moods and phases of Xature 

 bring so many chances into the humble lot of the mountaineer that 

 it is not surprising he should interpret her phenomena as having a 

 distinctly personal import. Anciently, around Olympus the talk was 

 of " omens," " auguries," and " fate " ; dwellers along the chain of 

 the Alleghanies to-day talk of " signs," " spells," and " luck," and 

 these words held their significance for hundreds of years in the an- 

 cestral stock of the first settlers in the region, most of the folklore 

 being directly traceable to a Scotch-Irish strain of blood. The moun- 

 tain pattern taken far from cities probably differs little either men- 

 tally or physically from that of the colonial mountaineers. Even 

 with the railroad traversing a limited area, and the infiux of summer 

 visitors during three months of the year, the only perceptible change 

 wrought in the natives is a little sharpening of their wits from the 

 barter of fruit and furs at the hotels in the extensive mineral-spring 

 section. The Alleghany mountaineer, ignorant, narrow-minded, 

 honest, brave, and hospitable, remains what he was when the eagle 

 soared from the inaccessible eyrie above his head to be chosen 

 as the tutelary genius of the unconquerable young republic. 

 The chief distinction in the temperament of the sexes is that the 

 men are frank and talkative, the women shy and uncommunica- 

 tive. Beings approaching the legendary fauns and satyrs, clad in 

 the skins of wild animals, are sometimes discovered by the solitary 

 horseman in the wild mountain fastnesses; they gaze at him as an 

 apparition from a strange world, never having seen a village or heard 

 a railroad whistle. 



There is a curious and persistent survival of the belief in witch- 

 craft through this mineral-spring belt in West Virginia. To draw 

 out the natives on this mysterious subject they must be approached 

 s^Tupathetically ; if twitted with their credulity they will shut up 

 like clams, for with all the simplicity of the unlettered their intui- 

 tion often arrives at a correct understanding of the estimate placed 

 upon them by more fortunate persons. When satisfied that he is 

 not expected to pose as a " freak," but is met on the equal plane of 

 human intercourse, the mountain story-teller seems to enjoy recount- 

 ing the traditions and beliefs of his people and their forefathers. 

 Leaving himself a loophole of escape, he is very likely to finish his 

 yam with — 



" 'Tain't that I believe them things myself. I know they ain't 

 nawthin' but superstition; but I kin qualify that right round here, 

 not many miles away, there's people that believes in witches." 



