Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/640

 292 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

discovered, and that for years the water in the place where it disappeared remained black. Assuredly it was that the gate of the subterranean waters would not close, and demanded other victims. From that time the fairy fish has never been, but in the country it is believed that he will return when the world shall be better than it now is."

A note informs us that in many parts of Brittany it is believed that below the surface of the earth exists an underground sea.

Some Homely Viands. — In " The American Kitchen Magazine " (Bos- ton), October, 1900, Mrs. F. D. Bergen gives information concerning cer- tain traditional sorts of food, which, as belonging to a state of society which has so rapidly passed away, may have interest as folk-lore.

" Many persons have heard of the famous Maryland biscuit or beaten biscuit. Some years ago I boarded for a time in a great mansion farm- house on the eastern shore of Maryland. We not only had these biscuits served daily at table, but we were fortunate enough to witness the entire process of making. The dough is made of wheat flour, mixed with lard, with a very small quantity of cold water. The ingredients, whose exact proportions I do not know, are mixed together, then the mass of dough is put on a clean block of wood, and the whole is pounded vigorously with an axe for a considerable time. The initiated can tell by the appearance of the dough when it has been sufficiently beaten. I well remember hearing a dull, intermittent thumping that lasted throughout a good part of a late summer afternoon. At last I asked what was the occasion of the muffled thud. Upon being told it was the pounding of the dough, we went to see. There stood Pete, the most indolent mulatto boy on the premises. He struck one heavy sluggish blow, then took a long rest, then gave another blow, and so on and so on. My question caused our hostess to step out into the back yard and hurry the boy with his work, as the biscuits were to be baked in time for the early farm supper. They were served hot soon after they were baked, but those that remained were afterwards put on the table cold. The Marylanders are very fond of these biscuits either hot or cold, and certainly when fresh they are very toothsome, though undoubtedly hygienic objections might properly be urged against them as a frequent article of diet.

" The hoe-cake of the old plantation days is still made in many parts of the Southern States, though on account of the general substitution of cook- ing stoves for the open fireplaces of earlier times, modifications naturallv have come about in regard to baking this simple cornbread, of which, when made by the hand of cunning, one seldom tires. The name, it is said, was given because the cake, made of meal, salt, and water, was often done brown on a hoe held in front of the glowing coals or possibly over a bed of these. I have heard men from the North, who travelled through Arkansas before the introduction of railroads, say that no ordinary bread could ever compare with the hoe-cake baked on a hot board stood aslant before a great, blazing wood fire, with which they had been entertained in her log- cabin by some old mammy. To-day cakes made in the same way are com-

�� �