DEAD “BELLED” BIRD

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 254, 10 July 1926, Page 22

DEAD “BELLED” BIRD

A bird of sinister omen in the South ern States of America—the ‘ belled buz--741 rd" —has been killed at l as y* „ A farmer shot him. and the bag appears to be the original winged scavenger whose tinkling, as he hovered over the dismal swamps of l.ousmna, or the impenetrable glades ot I’lorn.a, has been the basis of many stories that tor nearly half a century have caused the flesh ot darkies to creep and (heir woolly polls to horripilatc. This bird was what Uncle Lenius would have called “a harnt!” It "haunted” the evil-doer amt it was so uncanny as to be a terror to the righteous, also. .... , , For round the birds neck was a hell now on exhibition iu a jewellers shop nt Athens, Georgia. It bears the engraved inscription : ” "Joel Mine, Lianvijle, 1882.” One of the firm beliefs of the Southern negroes, for years, has been that when a dead human body lay exposed in wood or swamp, the buzzards would gather for an inquest. If they found llint the man or woman had been slain they, before disposing of the body in their usual carrion way. would send the bell buzzard out to avenge the crime. And the pursuit would go on until the incessant sound of the bell drove the murderer insane or impelled him to confess his "guilt.