ce, and frequently a long tongue of red flannel so fixed that
it could be moved with the wearer's tongue, and a long white robe--these
made up a costume which served at the same time as a disguise and as a
means of impressing the impressionable Negro. Horses were covered with
sheets or white cloth held on by the saddle and by belts, and sometimes
the animals were even painted. Skulls of sheep and cattle, and even of
human beings were often carried on the saddlebows to add another element
of terror. A framework was sometimes made to fit the shoulders of a
Ghoul which caused him to appear twelve feet high. A skeleton wooden
hand at the end of a stick served to greet terrified Negroes at
midnight. For safety every man carried a small whistle and a brace of
pistols.

The trembling Negro who ran into a gathering of the Ku Klux on his
return from a Loyal League meeting was informed that the white-robed
figures he saw were the spirits of the Confederate dead killed at
Chickamauga or Shiloh, now unable to rest in their graves because of
the conduct of the Negroes. He was told in a sepulchral voice of the
necessity for his remaining more at home and taking a less active part
in predatory excursions abroad. In the middle of the night, a sleeping
Negro might wake to find his house surrounded by a ghostly company, or
to see several terrifying figures standing by his bedside. They were,
they said, the ghosts of men whom he had formerly known. They had
scratched through from Hell to warn the Negroes of the consequences of
their misconduct. Hell was a dry and thirsty land; and they asked him
for water. Bucket after bucket of water disappeared into a sack of
leather, rawhide, or rubber, concealed within the flowing robe. The
story is told of one of these night travelers who called at the cabin
of a radical Negro in Attakapas County, Louisiana. After drinking three
buckets of water to the great astonishment of the darky, the traveler
thanked him and told him that he had traveled nearly a thousand miles
within twenty-four hours, and that that was the best water he had tasted
since he was killed at the battle of Shiloh. The Negro dropped the
bucket, overturned chairs and table in making his escape through the
window, and was never again seen or heard of by residents of that
community. Another incident is told of a parade in Pulaski, Tennessee:
"While the procession was passing a corner on which a Negro man was
standing, a tall horseman in