🧚 Opening, part 13

This preliminary operation concluded, Jack produced his forceps.1 John, already appalled at the suffering which he had endured, gazed upon the instrument with eyes as big as saucers, and resolutely closed his mouth.2 To Jack’s command that he open it, he responded: “De teet yent duh hot me no mo.3 I gwine.”4 After much persuasion Jack prevailed upon him to open his mouth and let him “tek de ting out.”5 At length the old man firmly grasped the tooth with the forceps, and began to haul away at it.6 As he pulled, John commenced to rise from his seat.7 Jack endeavored, with the left hand, to keep him down, while he tugged lustily at the tooth with his right.8 All to no purpose.9 John was quickly upon his feet, and then upon tiptoe, so that Jack could no longer operate to any advantage.10 It seemed as if for once the sable dentist was to be baffled in his aim.11 Nothing daunted, however, and muttering imprecations upon his unfortunate victim, he slowly backed across the yard, drawing John after him,--who meanwhile was giving utterance to the most miserable and unearthly sounds from his bloody jaws, and attempting, with uplifted hands, to arrest the traction of the resolute old man, who refused for an instant to relax his hold,--until he reached a flight of steps which led up to the main room of the smoke-house.12 Here he hoped to acquire the advantage which he so much desired.13 Ascending backward three of the steps, and quickly placing his right foot upon John’s shoulder, so as to keep him below and thus obtain an additional purchase, with one supreme effort he succeeded in compassing his purpose.14 The tooth came out so suddenly that the old man, losing his balance, fell heavily against the door of the smoke-house, while John tumbled in the opposite direction, yelling with pain, and protesting that “Uncle Jack done broke eh jaw.”15

Recovering himself in a trice, and holding aloft the forceps, which still infolded in its remorseless fangs the gory molar, with an indescribable air of commingled dignity, scorn, and triumph addressing the discomfited victim of his professional skill, old Jack exclaimed: “Haw, Boy! when I graff my han on er teet, eh bown fuh come, er de jaw pop,--one er tarruh.”16

In after years the old man often recurred with manifest pride and satisfaction to this incident, and frequently cited this exploit in confirmation of his boast “dat no nigger teet ebber yet did git de better er me.”17

LIX.18

THE NEGRO AND THE ALLIGATOR.19

Foremost among the reptiles which excited the curiosity and aroused the fears of the Georgia colonists, upon their first acquaintance with them, were the alligators.20 Francis Moore, keeper of the stores, describing them in 1736, says: “They are terrible to look at, stretching open an horrible large mouth big enough to swallow a Man, with Rows of dreadful large sharp Teeth, and Feet like Draggons, armed with great Claws, and a long Tail which they throw about with great Strength, and which seems their best Weapon, for their Claws are feebly set on, and the Stiffness of their Necks hinders them from turning nimbly to bite.”21 In order to dissipate the general terror which these strange saurians inspired, Mr. Oglethorpe, having wounded and caught one of them, caused it to be carried to Savannah, where he “made the boys bait it with sticks, and finally pelt and beat it to death.”22

To the European, newly landed on these shores, the alligator was indeed a novelty, repulsive and provocative of dread.23 Not so with the negro.24 His ancestors were well acquainted with the African crocodile, and their descendants, dwelling in this marsh region filled with swamps and cypress ponds, and permeated with lagoons, creeks, and rivers--the habitat of this formidable reptile--were from childhood familiar with its roar, and entirely accustomed to its unsightly appearance and habits.25 Among these sable myth-makers it figured as an important _dramatis persona_.26 Of the dogs, geese, ducks, and hogs of the plantation hands it was an avowed and a voracious enemy.27 When skinned and thoroughly boiled, its tail was esteemed by many as a savory article of food.28 For the cure of rheumatism its oil was held in special repute, and the exuded musk was collected for medicinal uses.29 Its skin, rudely tanned, entered largely into the composition of home-made pouches and shoes.30 Whistles and powder-charges were fabricated from the tusks, which also served a good turn for the pickaninnies to rub their swollen gums against, and to cut their first teeth upon.31 A constant depredator was the alligator upon the fish-traps which guarded the mouths of the short creeks emptying into the rivers.32 Upon the reflux of the tide, entering the inclosure, this reptile gorged itself upon the fishes there detained, and incurred the wrath of Cuffee, whose frying-pan was thus cheated out of its anticipated evening broil.33 Hence it came to pass that the alligator was regarded by the negro both as an enemy and as desirable game.34 During the spring and summer they frequently met, and whenever the former could be taken at a disadvantage its life was forfeit to the opportunity.35 It was killed in rice-field ditches, in shallow ponds, and occasionally upon land.36 The hoe, the axe, a fence rail, and the club were the offensive weapons; and loud were the cries and great was the fun while the struggling reptile was being beaten to death.37 In the back-waters and in swamps where the alligators made their nests, reared their young, and dug their holes, the negroes, during their leisure hours, were fond of capturing them by means of a heavy iron hook fastened to the end of a long, stout pole.38 This was thrust into the hole where the reptile lay.39 While snapping at the hook, with its irritating prong, the alligator was in the end securely caught with the barb, and then came the tug of war.40 It was in no wise an easy operation to draw from its hiding-place one of these reluctant, excited, and revolving monsters.41 For this purpose the combined strength of several stalwart men barely sufficed.42 The frolic was joyous, and the exultant shouts of those engaged in the sport awakened strange echoes in the depths of the dank and moss-clad swamps.43

If we may credit the text of the “Brevis Narratio” of Le Moyne de Morgues, the Florida Indians were addicted to similar sport, and Plate XXVI may well be claimed in practical illustration of the amusement to which we are now alluding.44

During the period of hibernation the negroes often dug these reptiles out of their holes.45 Sometimes the alligator attained huge proportions, measuring, from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, fourteen feet.46 It was fond of a given locality, and exercised exclusive dominion over some favorite bend in the river, some chosen part of a lake, or some attractive pool in the swamp.47 The patriarch, with its attendant consort and progeny, there reigned supreme, unless, after severe battle, it was driven away by one more powerful.48

In ante-bellum days, when firearms were denied to the negro population, alligators were far more numerous than they are at present.49 The great demand for their skins which has arisen of late, the use of the rifle in the hands of the tourist, and the employment of the shot-gun by the freedmen have united in causing a frightful mortality among these reptiles.50 Bartram says that when he visited the River St. John the alligators at one point “were in such incredible numbers, and so close together from shore to shore, that it would have been easy to have walked across on their heads, had the animals been harmless.”51