54 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 68 



The poorer class of mountaineers frequently show characteristics 

 partly due to their hackwardness in education and their isolation, 

 and partly perhaps to hook-worm disease or other ahnormal condi- 

 tions. Some of the young- men are types of slouchiness, such as 

 would delight the artist ; while the women disfigure themselves by 

 chewing- snufif and frequently show uncouthness in dress, move- 

 ments, and behavior. But the people are hospitable and interest- 

 ing. In the course of a short ride of less than two miles through a 

 sparsely settled gorge, the writer and his local companion had no 



Fig. 53. — Alountaineer's shack and patch of corn, eastern Tennessee. 



less than four invitations to lunch — in the other places there was no 

 one at home. Their language and intonation are characteristic and 

 ({uaint, and the people seem to be full of old and local folk-lore, 

 the study of which would probably prove most delightful. Being 

 largely dependent on themselves and their few neighbors th-ey have 

 also many antiquated and strange curative practices which would 

 repay investigation. 



Their worst enemies are the isolation. " moonshine " whiskey, and, 

 in not a few cases, undoubtedly a poor heredity. The army draft 



