Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 5

Myths And Legends of Our Own
Land, vol 5: The South

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Title: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land (Lights And Shadows Of
The South)
Author: Charles M. Skinner
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6610] [Yes, we are more than
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MYTHS-LEGENDS, BY SKINNER, V5 ***

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MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF OUR OWN LAND
By Charles M. Skinner
Vol. 5.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH

CONTENTS:
The Swim at Indian Head The Moaning Sisters A Ride for a Bride
Spooks of the Hiawassee Lake of the Dismal Swamp The Barge of
Defeat Natural Bridge The Silence Broken Siren of the French Broad
The Hunter of Calawassee Revenge of the Accabee Toccoa Falls Two
Lives for One A Ghostly Avenger The Wraith Ringer of Atlanta The
Swallowing Earthquake The Last Stand of the Biloxi The Sacred Fire
of Natchez Pass Christian The Under Land

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH
THE SWIM AT INDIAN HEAD
At Indian Head, Maryland, are the government proving-grounds, where
the racket of great guns and splintering of targets are a deterrent to the
miscellaneous visitations of picnics. Trouble has been frequently
associated with this neighborhood, as it is now suggested in the noisy
symbolry of war. In prehistoric days it was the site of an aboriginal
town, whose denizens were like other Indians in their love for fight and
their willingness to shed blood. Great was the joy of all these citizens
when a scouting party came in, one day, bringing with them the

daughter of one of their toughest old hunters and a young buck, from
another faction, who had come a-courting; her in the neighboring
shades.
Capture meant death, usually, and he knew it, but he held himself
proudly and refused to ask for mercy. It was resolved that he should die.
The father's scorn for his daughter, that she should thus consort with an
enemy, was so great that he was on the point of offering her as a joint
sacrifice with her lover, when she fell on her knees before him and
began a fervent appeal, not for herself, but for the prisoner. She would
do anything to prove her strength, her duty, her obedience, if they
would set him free. He had done injury to none. What justice lay in
putting him to the torture?
Half in earnest, half in humor, the chief answered, "Suppose we were to
set him on the farther shore of the Potomac, do you love him well
enough to swim to him?"
"I do."
"The river is wide and deep."
"I would drown in it rather than that harm should come to him."
The old chief ordered the captive, still bound, to be taken to a point on
the Virginia shore, full two miles away, in one of their canoes, and
when the boat was on the water he gave the word to the girl, who
instantly plunged in and followed it. The chief and the father embarked
in another birch--ostensibly to see that the task was honestly fulfilled;
really, perhaps, to see that the damsel did not drown. It was a long
course, but the maid was not as many of our city misses are, and she
reached the bank, tired, but happy, for she had saved her lover and
gained him for a husband.

THE MOANING SISTERS
Above Georgetown, on the Potomac River, are three rocks, known as
the Three Sisters, not merely because of their resemblance to each
other-- for they are parts of a submerged reef--but because of a tradition
that, more than a hundred years ago, a