Texas and Southwestern Lore Page: 89
259 p. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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Lore of the Llano Estacado
and started to the creek, some ten steps away, for a drink.
Another ventured to address the girl, and asked her if their
presence was interfering with the ghostly party. She replied:
"Yes! God! Leave, leave, leave!" And all records for the
mile run were unquestionably, though unofficially, shattered.
At that point in the story our old car hit an unusually bog-
gy hole, and my friend jumped out and pushed it through
to firmer ground. As he climbed back over the door and we
moved along again, I advanced the idea that perhaps this story
was more an index to the potency of West Texas "moon-
shine" than to the number of phantom spirits to be found in
Crosby County. My idea was overruled, as Roy declared the
four were men of temperate tastes, and would fight you in a
minute if you attempted to offer that explanation to them.
He went on to explain that the following day, January 13,
1923, witnessed no little excitement among the citizens of
Crosbyton. Some five hundred of them are said to have set
forth to investigate and discover the foundation of the story
the four coon hunters told. They rode to the canyon and
resolutely began the walk of a mile or two necessary to reach
the log house. Out of the entire party of 500, some five or
six reached the place,42 nor is the failure of the others to do so to
be attributed entirely to the West Texan's aversion to walking.
"Next January twelfth," concluded Roy, "I am going down
there and spend the night. The haunts are supposed to ap-
pear then." That was only last fall, and I have not yet heard
how fruitful his investigations proved.
These examples of the lore of the Llano Estacado will, per-
haps, convey some conception as to the field that this geo-
graphical region offers to folk-lorists. Any one of the
separate influences represented by the five social divisions-
the Indian, the Mexican trader and hunter, the buffalo hide
hunter, the Texas cowboy, and the farming settler-might be
made the subject of interesting and fruitful investigation.
Little has been written of the field. Therefore the study
should be the more engaging. As were the trading opportuni-
ties of the first Mexicans, the grass to the first cowmen, the
sod to the first farmers, the field is virgin. And, like all true
folk-lore, that of the Staked Plains is to be furrowed from the soil.
42Roy Howard to J. E. H., October 20, 1926.89
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Texas and Southwestern Lore (Book)
Collection of popular folklore from Texas and the Southwest, including ballads, cowboy songs, Native American myths, superstitions and other miscellaneous folk tales. It also contains the proceedings of the Texas Folklore Society. The index begins on page 243.
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Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964. Texas and Southwestern Lore, book, 1927; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67662/m1/91/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.