Abstract
UNTIL recently Kentucky was the most remote and primitive of the States of America. Among the Mountain whites, as is well known to students of American social conditions, the law did not run; they lived in conditions which were practically tribal, and the most prominent features in their social habits were the blood-feud and the illicit still. The Lowland whites and negroes, the remaining elements in the population, were also very little touched by outside influence. It is therefore not surprising to find that the compilers of this collection have been able to get together more than four thousand instances of superstitions, among which a firm belief in witchcraft and in the efficacy of charms and magical cures in illness figures prominently, A large proportion of these beliefs will be familiar to students of British folklore. As the Kentucky population was derived mainly from the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia, these superstitions have a pedigree going directly back to England in the seventeenth century. The authors consider that the negro has assimilated white folklore, his only contribution being the Voodoo or Hoodoo beliefs. Certain elements, however, suggest that a closer examination might modify this view.
Kentucky Superstitions.
Dr.
D. L.
Thomas
Lucy B.
Thomas
By. Pp. viii+334. (Princeton, N.J.; Princeton University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1920.) 12s. 6d. net.
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Kentucky Superstitions . Nature 108, 207 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/108207b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/108207b0