AND OTHER SKETCHES 151 



DO YOU CAEEY A RABBIT'S FOOT? 



A rabbit's foot for luck, is a solidly grounded belief 

 in the minds of tens of thousands of the dark-hued sons 

 and daughters of Africa, and many thousands also of 

 their white brethren. Out in Arkansas you can buy 

 them in all sizes; some mounted in silver, others of the 

 baby variety, to be worn as a charm on the watch chain. 

 If you wish to know full particulars of just how powerful 

 a charm they are and the luck they bring to the wearer, 

 just back up alongside of an aged Ethiopian, as I did 

 once out in Little Rock, Arkansas, and get him started 

 on what is, with so many of them, a favorite subject. 

 This old coon was particular in impressing upon me what 

 he pronounced "the important consideration," namely, 

 You must start on the hunt precisely at midnight and the 

 moon must be at its full. Your hunting ground must be 

 in the cemetery, no dark clouds may obscure Luna's fair 

 face, but her ghostly radiance must lighten up the tomb- 

 stones and a slanting ray or so strike the church edifice. 

 You must be armed only with a single-barreled shot-gun. 

 The charge must be slugs cut by a jack-knife from a round 

 stick of pig lead. Three of these slugs must have a cross 

 marked on them. Your gun ready, you sit crosswise over 

 the grave of a colored person who died at an age not less 

 than three score years and ten. There you must sit and 

 wait patiently the appearance of a jack rabbit. If he 

 fails to make his appearance one night, you must continue 

 your nightly hunt, when the weather is propitious, until 

 the hour arrives when you have secured your game. 

 Once this is done you cut off the four feet, then bury the 

 body at the nearest crossroad. You must talk to nobody 

 on your way to the graveyard, and you must be equally 

 mum on the return with your spoils. 



