Beadle's Dime Novels No. 33: Maum Guinea and Her Plantation Children — page 114: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

106 MAUM GUINEA. had had wonderful adventures, the most of which had never extended beyond the swamps. and woods of their own plant- ations, But they were full of reminiscences of turkey-hunts and “ painters,” and strange experiences of alligators—some of the latter stories bearing evident marks of haying descended from. their Congo mothers, in the original shape of croco- diles, here softened down to our less formidable tribe. A fetishish and hobgoblin air had some of these remarkable traditions, grotesque and ridiculous, with not enough reason in them to’ pin the airiest faith to; but they were delightful to these vivid, untrained imaginations, and perhaps the wild- rolling eyes and big-mouthed credulity of the hearers were. all in keeping with the stories. One told about a turkey-hunt in which he took the most caution and delicate skill than seemed to be in his organiza- tion, perhaps he exaggerated his personal importance. His auditors swallowed his story as good-naturedly as they would have done the wild-turkey itself; and after it was finished, the negro with the fiddle sang a favorite song of the planta. tion-lands in Louisiana and Georgia, the chorus of which is a curiously-correct imitation of the peculiar cry of the turkey- cock when he calls to his distant mate—a soft, guttural, resounding utterance—and in the chorus the whole party joined— | a “4 Chng a-loggpe, ehug-s-loggee, chug-«logese cima . Look-a-heah, niggas! S’pose an alligator come out of de cane-brake as big as dat cypress log dar—guess you wouldn’t sing ne dropped jnto the circle. — eam ie : “ Wha’ for?” exclaimed half a dozen of the Aadtiiedn chorus, as they sprang to their feet and rolled their eyes in an extraordinary manner. Each one, standing as immovable, commicloooks.conn » —..