looking for niggers widout passes. If
dey ever caught you off yo' plantation wid no pass, dey beat you all
over.

"Yes'm, I 'member a song 'bout--

'Run, nigger, run, de patteroller git you,
Slip over de fence slick as a eel,
White man ketch you by de heel,
Run, nigger run!'"

No amount of coaxing availed to make her sing the whole of the song, or
to tell any more of the words.

"When slaves run away, dey always put de blood-hounds on de tracks.
Marster always kep' one hound name' Rock. I can hear 'im now when dey
was on de track, callin', 'Hurrah, Rock, hurrah, Rock! Ketch 'im!'

"Dey always send Rock to fetch 'im down when dey foun' 'im. Dey had de
dogs trained to keep dey teef out you till dey tole 'em to bring you
down. Den de dogs 'ud go at yo' th'oat, and dey'd tear you to pieces,
too. After a slave was caught, he was brung home and put in chains.

"De marsters let de slaves have little patches o' lan' for deyse'ves. De
size o' de patch was 'cordin' to de size o' yo' family. We was 'lowed
'bout fo' acres. We made 'bout five hundred pounds o' lint cotton, and
sol' it at Warrenton. Den we used de money to buy stuff for Chris'man."

"Did you have big times at Christmas, Aunt Ferebe?"

"Chris'man--huh!--Chris'man warn't no diffunt from other times. We used
to have quiltin' parties, candy pullin's, dances, corn shuckin's, games
like thimble and sich like."

Aunt Ferebe refused to sing any of the old songs. "No, mam, I ain't
go'n' do dat. I th'oo wid all dat now. Yes, mam, I 'members 'em all
right, but I ain't go'n' sing 'em. No'm, nor say de words neither. All
dat's pas' now.

"Course dey had doctors in dem days, but we used mostly home-made
medicines. I don't believe in doctors much now. We used sage tea, ginger
tea, rosemary tea--all good for colds and other ail-ments, too.

"We had men and women midwives. Dr. Cicero Gibson was wid me when my
fus' baby come. I was twenty-five years old den. My baby chile
seventy-five now."

"Auntie, did you learn to read and write?"

"No, _mam_, I'd had my right arm cut off at de elbow if I'd a-done dat.
If dey foun' a nigger what could read and write, dey'd cut yo' arm off
at de elbow, or sometimes at de shoulder."

In answer to a query about ghosts, she said--"No, mam, I ain't seed
nuttin' like dat. Folks come tellin' me dey see sich and sich a thing. I
say hit's de devil dey see. I ain't seed nuttin' yit. No'm, I don't
believe in no signs, neither."