128 
music in a show down fight, the number actually having figured in the 
ambuscades being small. 
In some parts of the region, as about Oneida, education is causing 
the decline of the feud; but in other sections it flourishes, as near Pound 
Gap (Trail of the Lonesome Pine), near where, it is said, some eleven 
men were killed in three months during the spring of 1914. 
The home, also, is changing. One still can see the windowless log 
cabin with its “dog-trot’’; but some roofs are of shingles, and some of 
tin, while frame structures are appearing, and brick. 
Mountain simplicity and hospitality are illustrated by one man who 
said, “I want a good house; two rooms—one for the family and one for 
company, each big enough for a bed in every corner—and a lean-to cook 
room.” 
The following is a description from Professor Penniman’s unpublished 
tales of the mountains: “Three days are ample to build a log-cabin 
twenty feet square. The part before the roof is called a ‘pole pen’. This 
is run up in a few hours. ‘The trees sufficient to build a cabin complete 
are often standing on an acre. With the roof up, and stone chimney on 
the outside, and the big fireplace opening into the room, the young people 
can begin housekeeping. A few saplings will make a bed frame fastened 
to the logs in one corner, and a bed without a tick, two feet thick, of 
fresh pine needles, gives a sense of luxury to the newly married pair.” 
Customs and Habits. 
It must be remembered that there are all grades of society in the 
mountains, and that no general description can be applied to a_ specific 
case. 
Woman is inferior to man in both number and position. Not only 
is she a household drudge, but a field hand as well (out-of-door work in 
itself, of course, does not constitute drudgery). She still follows behind 
him as they trudge over the mountain. A mountain boy, upon being asked 
how many brothers he had, answered promptly: “Two.” But concerning 
the number of sisters, he drawled: “Oh, three or four.’ The modern 
woman movement hardly has penetrated into the hills, and when it does, 
it will meet orthodox opposition. However, women increasingly vote in 
school affairs in some districts. Furthermore, here and there a girl re- 
turns from Berea, or some other college, with ideas strange to her people. 
