EXPERIENCES OF A TRAPPER AND HUNTER 
FROM YOUTH TO OLD AGE 
By T. ALEXANDER 
CHAPTER III. 
I was a little older now and was enjoying country dances and 
that sort of thing as well as my trapping and hunting, almost. I had, 
from my early youth, been fond of visiting the old negroes’ cabins 
to listen to them play their fiddles and pick their old banjos and see 
them dance, or have them teach me their jigs and clog steps, which 
were many. 
You readers who have never seen a real black negro play the 
fiddle and stamp his feet at the same time, now and then giving a 
hearty whoop, and seconded by a good banjo picker, have never heard 
real music. 
There was music and dancing almost every night in some of 
the cabins and when it came to jigging or clogging, the negro of those 
days certainly had the world beaten. I have often seen a negro woman 
and man get out on the floor, facing each other, and dance for an 
hour. They would cut a pigeon wing, back step, buck jump, heal and 
toe, scratch back, chase the squirrel and any number of other antics^, 
the names of which I have forgotten. 
Jim and I had learned all of this perfect. Often when we were 
alone Jim would slap his hands and hum some of those old familiar 
tunes such as “The Arkansas Traveler,” “Jenny Put the Kettle On,” 
“Hasten to the Wedding,” “Sally Goodin,” “Fishing Creek Horn 
Pipe,” “Devil’s Dream,” “Dixie” and any number of the good old 
tunes. While Jim made music I danced and vice versa until we were 
both wet with sweat. Often we would even dance a hole in the ground. 
This way Jim and I became the most perfect dancers in the 
crowds that congregated and the old negroes often commended us 
on our dancing. 
One night, when Uncle Tom, the fiddler and Andy, the banjo 
picker, took their seats, Uncle Tom drew his long fiddle bow across 
his fiddle and Andy thumped the strings of his banjo to see if they 
harmonized. Then Uncle Tom laid off his hat and said to Jim and 
I, “Get out on de floor, you two hunters, let’s see what youse can do.” 
Jim and I, feeling honored by the musician, were anxious to show 
them what we could do. We stepped out, with full assurance that 
we would not be laughed at, and when the music started we started 
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