Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/286

 274 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

To cure the same disease in Pennsylvania, the baby, wrapped in blankets, is put in the oven after bread has been taken out and the oven has cooled down. Then, with the oven door open, the baby is " baked " for one hour.

surveyors' custom.

An interesting custom was formerly practised by surveyors in marking out the boundaries of estates. It was usual for the sur- veyor, at a certain point, when surveying land, to give the smallest child in the party that followed him, whether black or white, a severe whipping. Trees, it was claimed, might be struck by lightning or otherwise destroyed, and stones might disappear, but the child, who was likely to outlive the others present, would never forget the spot where he received the whipping. A gentleman whose childhood's home was in Calvert County writes of this custom as follows : —

" I recollect when quite a small boy, perhaps five or six years old, I was staying at my uncle's when Mr. King was sent for to survey a lot of ground." Mr. King, he explains elsewhere, was the son of a surveyor, and father and son together had not only surveyed all the land in Calvert County, but much in the counties adjoining. "He had great difficulty," he continues, " in finding the starting-point from an old deed which he had in his possession. After the start- ing-point was found and the compass adjusted, he told me that in his younger days, the youngest boy around was severely whipped on that spot, so that all his life he would remember where the survey began. He cut a switch from a near-by tree, and told me that he would not be hard on me, but struck me a few licks gently that I might tell the place when I grew up; but I am afraid I could not find it now, it has been so long ago."

Another gentleman, who is a surveyor, writes of the same custom as having been practised by his father and grandfather, who were surveyors in and around Baltimore.

WHY TTIE DEVIL NEVER WEARS A HAT.

The Maryland collection gives many quaint and curious " reasons why" certain things are, or are believed in. Here we find out why the devil never wears a hat, as told by one of African descent : —

" De debbil, he am jes' chuck full ob fire an' steam an' brimstone, an' all dese jes' keep up a pow'ful workin' an' goin' on together ; an' to keep from jes' nater'ly 'xplodin', he got a hole in de top o* he haid — a roun' hole — an' de steam an' fire jes' pour out 'n dere all de time. No cullud pusson ever see de debbil when de steam an' fire warn't rushin' out, 'n so 't warn't no use fur him to wear a hat."

Anne Weston Whitney.

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