TRAUMFEST ON THE BLUE RIDGE 9 
tlons and chimneys chinked with red mud, and 
along through fields where the vegetation is sparse, 
as though loath to hide the fervid color of the soil, 
while here and there you will see a stream flowing 
with blood-red water. Even the wasps' nests that so 
plentifully adorn the walls and rafters are built of 
red mud. Men and boys have red ends to their 
trousers, and reddish-looking shirt-sleeves, horses 
have red hoofs and white mules have bright red legs. 
It must not be supposed, however, that all the earth 
is red; there is some gray soil, some that is brown, 
and much that is yellow; but red predominates to 
such a degree that you think of this as a red land. 
Reinforcing the warm color of the soil is the sunny 
nature of the greens. One never sees here the cold 
dark greens of the North ; even the pine trees have a 
warm tint as though soaked in sunshine, and on the 
eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge there is no green- 
sward, the ground in summer being covered with 
sparse wild grasses, and little bushes and herbs that 
paint the landscape in many tones. 
Lying as it does on the South Carolina state line, 
Traumfest, in addition to its other attractions, has a 
spice of border romance, for constantly crossing 
from one state to the other is that picturesque 
figure, the "moonshiner," who persists in distilling 
corn whiskey in secret places and in passing the cup 
that cheers and most certainly inebriates to his will- 
ing neighbors, in defiance of the laws that declare 
such actions to be unlawful. Hogback and its com- 
panion. Rocky Spur, are in South Carolina, and be- 
