"Ghosts and Goosebumps" is a rich collection of folktales and
superstitions that capture the oral traditions of central and
southeastern Alabama. In its pages one can glimpse the long-lost
horse-and-buggy times, when people sat up all night with the dead
and dying, hoed and handpicked cotton, drew water from wells, and
met the devil rather regularly.
The book is divided into three parts--tales, superstitions, and
slave narratives. The spirits of treasure-keepers, poltergeists,
murderers and the murdered, wicked men and good-men-and-true float
through the book's first section. Sue Peacock, for example, recalls
seeing the ghost of her brother, and E.C. Nevin describes a
mysterious light in a swamp. In other tales, reports of
supernatural experiences are proved to be rationally
explicable--Lee Wilson's devil in the cemetery turns out to be a
cow and chains rattling near New Tabernacle Church in Coffee County
belong not to specters but to hogs.
The superstitions are arranged according to subject and include
such topics as love and marriage, weather and the seasons, wish
making, bad luck, signs, and portents. Anonymous tellers confide
that it is bad luck to carry ashes out after dark, to let a locust
holler in your hand, to rock an empty rocking chair, to let your
fishing pole cross someone else's, or to have a two-dollar bill
(unless one corner has been removed).
The slave narratives, selected from the Works Progress
Administration Folklore Collection, are substantial and yield a
fascinating view of nineteenth century African-American folk life,
replete with sillies and lazy men, preachers and witches, brave
little boys, and reluctant bridegrooms. Although the times and
places have changed, the spirit of the folk is unaltered. Taken
together, these folktales are marvelously diverse--by turns
fearsome, fantastical, witty, ribald, charmingly innocent--showing
people from all backgrounds, their endless vices and occasional
virtues, their hopes, fears, and loves.
General
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