Nov. io, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4 03 
In the Louisiana Lowlands,— IX. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
{Continued from last <w£ikl\ 
A lot of crawfish had been gathered, and now was the 
time to utilize them. In the lobster country this small 
brother is not regarded as food, but it is very good, and 
in Germany it is bred for the table. To-day quite a 
i-i umber are sold in New York and New Orleans. But, 
us 1 am using a local name, it may be well to say that the 
English took the French name, ecrivesse, and turned it 
into "crayfish," and "crawfish" is a further corruption, 
but more popular. In some salt waters there is a spiny 
lobster without the large claws which is also cajled 
"crayfish." Our crayfish are almost miniature lobsters, 
living in fresh waters, some specimens burrowing 
tb rough the levees and causing damage to the amount 
of millions of dollars, some living in streams under 
stones and some living on the prairies of Kansas, and 
burrowing down to water. Where Germans and Nor- 
wegians have settled they are called "crabs," after their 
German name "krebs." So much for the name, as 
necessary information to thousands who know the ani- 
mal well, but never heard it called a crawfish. We 
have in America a verb from this noun, as "he craw- 
fished." meaning that he backed out. 
We had kept none under 5m., extreme length of body 
exclusive of claws, and had none over 7in., but we had 
about sixty. The water in the iron pot was boiling, and 
in they went, all alive and kicking. Dr. Gordon re- 
marked: "They never make a kick after they strike the 
water, neither does a. lobster, if the water is boiling. 
I believe it paralyzes the nerves, don't you think so?" 
"Perhaps it does; they never stir after they strike 
boiling water, but perhaps they're used to it, as the eels 
are to being skinned. We eat fish which die from as- 
phyxiation, although they would be better if killed at 
once, but a lobster that dies in the air is really poisonous, 
and that is why I always buy live lobsters and have 
them cooked." 
"Now you've opened up a new subject which interests 
me. f have had to treat a case of lobster poisoning, 
and while you are frying the fish and boiling the craw- 
fish I'll make the tea. set the table and listen." 
The fish sputtered in the pan, and a big drop of boil- 
ing fat found rest between the thumb and forefinger 
of my left hand, and just then a change of wind filled 
my eyes with smoke. Here my notes are blurred and 
all remarks are lost. I only remember that Dr. Gordon 
stood looking at me for a moment and then remarked: 
"Language has its uses, but I do not remember to have' 
heard it used as fuel before; you seem to be impatient 
with the process of cooking; fix your mind on Job and 
consider how patient he was for a long time, and here 
you let a trifling bit of smoke upset your temper." 
Smarting in eyes and hand, the humor of the situation 
came to the fore at his reference to Job, and T said: 
"Job was all right in his day and time, and he was sorely 
tried, but he never camped out on the Atchefalaya 
River, and after days of mosquito stinging tried to 
cook his dinner with his eyes full of burning smoke 
and his hand burned with boiling fat at the same time 
that an old sawbones wants to know a lot about lobster 
poisoning. Go back to Job if you want to learn about 
boils, and perhaps you may learn how to boil lobsters." 
Peace Spreads her Wings. 
When all was ready we sat down to our dinner. The 
table, be it of mahogany, a stump, or a bit of canvas 
on the ground, is a treaty of amnesty; all hostilities are 
suspended and are temporarily forgotten. The man who 
brings up a disagreeable subject at table is an enemy 
to all mankind. This is the rule the world over. "Pis- 
tols and coffee for two." We may fight, but not at the 
table; there we bury the hatchet, if only for an hour. 
We started in on the fried crappies at a safe distance 
from the smoke, which. Dr. Gordon remarked, "always 
follows beauty, and if the adage is true I wonder how it 
ever got into your eyes." 
"That's dead easy, Doctor; it had no other way of 
avoiding you. Have another crappie; these are even bet- 
ter than the ones from Red River and Catahoula Lake. 
I wonder if they go down into brackish water; if they 
do, I don't know it." 
When the crawfish were served there was a pause 
while I arranged the fillets of duck before the glowing 
coals, and the Doctor was awaiting my return. Said 
he: "I am in doubt just how these things should be 
eaten, whether shells and all, or how?" 
I was pouring the tea and answered: "Open them 
and use them as if they were lobsters, that's all." 
"I know nothing of the anatomy of a lobster, but 
have heard that there are poisonous parts. A while 
ago I ventured to speak of this, but between smoke and 
scalding fat you lost your temper so far as to speak 
disrespectfully, of Job, and no doubt the equator might 
have come under your disapprobation at that time if 
any person had been rash enough to mention it." 
Picking up a crawfish for illustration, I announced: 
"This is the first- lecture on crustacean anatomy, the 
subject being the lobster and the related species. 
It will be short, for two reasons: First, the 
lecturer doesn't get a cent for his services; and sec- 
ond, his dinner is waiting. It is to be hoped that the 
audience will be ^attentive and will restrain their en- 
thusiasm, for the rule of only one encore will be strictly 
enforced. Now, Doctor, you will observe that first I 
break off the head from the thorax, which in the lob- 
ster cannot be done, and throw it away. In the lobster 
We merely take out the stomach, which is just back of the 
eyes, and is one of the 'poisonous parts,' but as no one 
could eat it there is no chance of poisoning from it. 
It is something like a gizzard and has teeth, which when 
opened show tbe 'lady in the chair.' From the stomach 
there is no opening except the mouth, and as the owl 
•ejects the skins and bones of mice, so does the lobster 
eject material that is not digestible. Then, all food that 
is assimilated is strained through that stomach, and 
forms green and white fats in the carapace, which are 
delicious in fresh lobster, but are lost .when the meat is 
canned. Then, at the beginning of the abdomen, where 
the joints of what is called the 'tail' start, there is a 
green-colored drain-tube which runs to the vent, and 
■this is the other so-called 'poisonous part,' bur 'why any 
person should eat this intestine I don't know." 
During this talk young Gawge came in camp, He 
was a "likely" boy of perhaps fourteen years old, and 
seemed diffident. He took off his hat and waited to be 
noticed. I had seen him standing behind the Doctor 
while giving the lecture on the lobster and its cousin 
the crawfish, and at a convenient time I noticed him 
and asked: "Is yo' young Gawge?" 
"Yas, sah, I is, an' dey sayed yo' wanted fo' to go to 
de duck ma'sh, but didden' know whah he was." 
"Yo's right, honey," said I, "an' yo' jess squatulate 
down heah an' fill yo' insides w'ile we gits ready." 
"Pardon me," the Doctor interposed, "your dis- 
quisition on the lobster may be all right, but 
your attempt at darky dialect is a failure; the boy has 
no idea what you mean by 'squatulate;' that's some of 
your Northern coinage; let me try him. Ho, Gawge! 
Come heah an' stick yo' toof in owah poak an' chicken 
fixens." 
He grinned, sat down and watched us eat crawfish; 
but when the Doctor offered him a dozen on a piece of 
bark he looked disgusted and said: "No, sah, I don' 
eat nun o' dem crawlahs; dey's p'ison." 
He could not be induced to touch one; the argument 
that we had eaten them many times had no effect. 
Prejudice is a powerful thing, and is not to be put down 
by reasoning. The London boy in the country who 
wanted to go home and get good milk from the milkman 
because, "here they pull the milk out of a nahsty cow, 
I saw 'em do it," is a sample. An Arab, brought up 
on milk from mares, camels and asses, wonders why 
some people spleen against the milk of those animals, 
and we often run against a prejudice against, frogs and 
eels, and all this is simply because they are unaccus- 
tomed foods to some people, who will not try to like 
them. George would not eat frogs, and here was a poor 
darky family living on hog and hominy, with an occa- 
sional fish or duck, declining to eat two things that are 
considered delicacies, the crawfish and the frog. . The 
fried crappies were just to the boy's taste, and with 
the hardtack he made a meal before the ducks were 
served. But his appetite was of the full size ball-bearing, 
easy-running, self-lubricating, reversible action, non- 
assessable kind that, once started, was like Tennyson's 
"Brook," and as we had a desire to be hospitable the 
Doctor put in six more crappies that had been reserved 
for supper, for we intended to keep the teal for our- 
selves, as eating crawfish is as unsatisfactory as eating 
peanuts, one never gets enough, and can't stop until 
none are left. 
The southern breeze that came up the river day and 
night made our camp delightful, because it kept off the 
mosquitoes, which, having no keel nor centerboard, can 
only go with the wind. After dinner we lay down and 
slept. What George did, or what he thought about 
an after-dinner nap, we did not know; but when I be- 
came conscious it was 4 P. M., and the boy was seated 
on a log with his bare feet dangling in the water. . The 
Doctor soon aroused, and we arranged to go to the 
ma'sh where the ducks came at sundown; and hce 
a new question arose. 
"Doctor, this old tub of a boat is all right to float 
down stream in, but suppose this marsh is some miles 
down the river, how will we get back? In my younger 
life I thought myself a fair oarsman, but Would have 
hesitated to take an old water-soaked packing box like 
ours a great way up stream." 
The Doctor reflected a minute before he said: "The 
river is wide here; there is but little current, and the 
wind will be with us coming back. How far is the 
ma'sh, George?" 
"Jess yandah, sah, awn de oder side in de grass you 
see aroun' de bend." 
"Not a mile," the Doctor remarked, "we're good for 
that, I think; what do you say?" 
"Of course we're good for that; I can swim that 
distance, and tow the old tub if you'll pole a little. 
Let's get. the guns and ammunition aboard, and get over 
and build our blind. The only drawback is that we 
have no light boat to chase cripples and pick up the 
birds." 
The boy said: "I'll swim out fo' de ducks." 
Among the Ducks. 
We had already limited our killing to six blue-winged 
teal to be taken to New Orleans, as has been related. 
The marsh was in a bend of the river, and covered sev- 
eral miles. We had no decoys, but we had some poles, 
over which we laid grass, and waited. Along about sun- 
down the sharp-eyed boy jumped up and yelled: "Dah 
he come!" and a flock of pintails swerved to the east 
and passed us out of shot. 
"George," said I, "many are the men and boys that 
I have killed for scaring game away, but I don't want to 
kill you, 'cause you's a good boy. But I'm a Yankee, 
an' a Yankee jess likes to kill a darky boy an' cook him 
fo' his dinnah. Didden yo' fader tole yo' I was a 
Yankee? If he didden, den heah's Dr. Gawden'll tell 
yo', an' if yo' yells out w'en de ducks is a-comin' in, 
Gawge, I'll hab to 'cide ef I has ducks fo' dinnah o' a 
roas' darky boy. I doan lak fo' to kill yo', but yo' mus' 
keep still an' not 'larm de ducks." 
"Very. good! Better dialect," said my friend. "Now 
George, you must keep down and keep still. When you see 
ducks coming say 'Mark!' in a low voice or our Yankee 
friend may do as he says, fo' he's a sho 'miff Yankee, an' 
he might think that he would rather eat yo' than a duck. 
Yo's heard 'bout Yankees?" 
With his eyes fixed in a stare on my face and almost 
a pallor on his face the horrified boy managed to say: 
"I'se heered 'bout 'em, but he doan look lak a Yankee. 
I'll keep still, but yo' ain' no Yankee is you'?" 
"Yes, I am a Yankee, but I don' eat colored bovs now, 
'less I hab to kill 'em fo' scarin' ducks away. ' If yo' 
keep quiet and do as Dr. Gordon says, yo' will "go 
home to yo' mammy safe." 
The ducks came in and we could have slain hundreds. 
Our forbearance puzzled the boy then, and perhaps he 
does not understand .it to this day. Our limit was six 
blue-winged teal, for green-wings were scarce. Bui 
a flock of green-wings came over and we gathered in 
lour of them. 
Said the Doctor: "We did not count on these small 
.clucks, hardly as large as a pigeon, but let us rate them 
at two for one blue-wing in weight of meat, how do 
you rank them in the epicurean sense?" 
"Higher than the blue-wing, and that's very high. But 
tastes differ as well as ducks, and I know men who 
prefer green-wing teal to any duck." A flock of duck.-; 
was coming up, and we were watching them, when 
they whirled away over the stream and might have 
turned and come our way, behind the island, but the 
excitemeni was too great for George, who jumped and 
called out: "Yandah he go!" Then he caught my fixed 
gaze and collapsed. Every time he raised his eyes he 
met the same gaze. He picked at his fingers and was 
wishing himself safely on shore, but in all h's after 
movements he kept the Doctor between him ml that 
gaze. 
A single duck came over and the Doctor winged : -t, 
and now George saw his chance, and in he plunged to 
catch it in water almost knee deep. The duck would 
dive, and the boy could see it in the shallow water 
and would rush to head it off, for with one wing broken 
it circled about, and once I might have shot it, but the 
boy was in the way. He splashed and tumbled after 
the bird for a while, but lost it in the marsh and returned 
with his two garments dripping. He spoke to the 
Doctor: "Sometime I mos' fotch him, an' den he gwine 
undah, an' I run hard fo' him an' 'spec' to fotch him 
w'en he come up, but I fall down an' he crawl in de grass, 
an' w'en I get dah he gawn." He would occasionally glance 
my way, but I had punished him enough, and no longer 
stared at him in a cannibalistic manner. 
A Few fo' de Fambly. 
We had our allotment of six blue-wings, or their 
equivalent, when I said: "Doctor, we have reached the 
limit where we agreed to stop shooting." 
"All right, we'll go to camp." 
"Doctah, mommy say w'en yo's got mo' ducks 'an yo' 
want, yo' might send some fo' de fambly,!' 
"How many in yo' fambly, Gawge?". the Doctor asked. 
"Dah's me an' Ben an' Pete an' Bill an' Jo an' Mose 
an' Kate an' Lucy an' Sue an' Lindy, I 'spec's dat's 
all." 
"That's ten children, and the old folks make an 
even dozen. The clucks are coming in thicker now. 
What d' ye say, shall we load the boy up?" 
"Yes, it's a fair excuse for more shooting; there will 
be no waste. Mark behind." A big flock of pintails 
came fairly over us, and the four barrels brought down 
seventeen ducks, of which only one got away, although 
we had to shoot two of them again. "Only eight more," 
said the Doctor, "to make just two apiece 'fo de fambly.'" 
That was a good start. The next flock yielded six 
"Two more," said the Doctor, and a bunch of blue- 
wings came past and left us seven. "And that's good 
measure," was the Doctor's remark. 
As George lived on that side of the river and knew a 
short cut to the road, he gathered his ducks and pro- 
posed to carry them home. "Let's see," the Doctor 
soliloquized, "twenty-two sprigtails, twice two are four; 
and a half make nibs, more, that's fifty-five, and the 
teal." Then aloud: "Why, boy, there are over oblbs. of 
ducks, and you've got four miles to go. You can't 
do it. Make two loads of them and you'll have all you 
want to carry then." 
Concerning a Mink. 
We strung half the ducks on a string through the 
under bill, and tying the ends of the string, put it over 
his left shoulder and under his right arm, as a soldier 
carries his blanket in the field, the ducks equally divided 
in front and rear. He wanted to leave the rest of the 
birds *on a hummock until he returned. As he could 
not return under three hours, and the sun had gone 
down, I overruled his proposition by saying to the 
Doctor: "We have killed these ducks to be used as 
food, and we must see that they are so used. I will 
not agree to leave them in this marsh, for I know what 
occurs after dark here as well as I know what is sure 
to happen to an unprotected duck on the Bowery after 
the shades of night have fallen. One mink has a good 
nose, twenty minks have twenty good noses, and as soon 
as it is dark there be scores of mink hunting crippled 
ducks and other prey in this marsh, and coming on a 
pile of ducks there would not be one left beside the 
stake which we planted to mark the spot where the 
game was left. These ducks must go to our camp, where 
the boy can surely find them, even if he travels further." 
"But," said the Doctor, 'T have understood that the 
mink only sucks the blood of living creatures, and if 
so,_ why should he carry off ducks that are dead, and 
which yield no blood?" 
The boy had gone, for I had spoken authoritively, and 
as we poled toward camp I found occasion to say: 
"You have a wrong understanding of the habits of the 
mink, but your view of the habits of this animal is the 
popular one. I can't work hard and talk at the same 
time. You pole over to the east side of the river, where 
you remarked that there was no current when we came 
down, and I will steer and unfold unto you the true 
character of the mink." 
When we got into the slack water I resumed: "A 
mink loves warm blood, and if one gets into a hennery, 
a duckery or among other birds where it can load up on 
warm blood there is hardly a limit to the number of 
fowl that it will kill. Such an orgie seldom happens 
more than once in the life of an individual mink. If it 
comes to one it is the event of his lifetime. He enjoys 
it as Jack does a night in the Tenderloin after being 
penned up on a cruiser for six months. Fresh, warm 
blood in quantities ad lib. are in the nature of a grand 
carouse to a mink, but not any part of his every-day 
life. His food is meat, but he will discard meat for 
warm blood if it is on tap, just as we will discard our 
hardtack for soft bread when we get to New Orleans. 
I speak by the card, because in my younger life, as a 
trapper, I often took the mink with baits of chicken, 
fish and partridge, and they have , killed my pet wood 
ducks by the dozen when they found an opening in 
the pens." 
The Last Night on the River* 
It was very dark when we reached camp, and it might 
have puzzled us to find it if the few coals from our 
fire had not indicated it. The moon was :; past. the full 
and would not be up for some hours, and but few stars 
were visible. 
