Such things there really are, in the far west; but once in a while they
tell us tales that are too much for us, sober Yankees, to believe.
Perhaps, in these cases, our bush-friends are only quizzing. They have
lately sent us the following tale; it is a little too beautiful, I am
afraid, to be really true. However, if it turns out a fable, it is a
very pretty one. Only think, a tub of cat fishes, turned musicians――and
that too after having had their mouths torn by the hook! Bravo! But
here is the story, as we find it in the papers.
“One of the wonders of the south-west is the mysterious music at West
Pascagoula. A correspondent of the Baltimore Republican, who examined
it attentively, thus takes the mantle of romance from it.
“During several of my voyages on the Spanish main, in the neighborhood
of ‘Baragua,’ and ‘San Juan de Nicharagua,’ from the nature of the
coast, we were compelled to anchor at a considerable distance from
the shore; and every evening, from dusk to late at night, our ears
were delighted with the Æolian music that could be heard beneath the
counter of our schooner. At first, I thought it was the sea-breeze
sweeping through the strings of my violin, (the bridge of which I had
inadvertently left standing;) but, after examination, found it was
not so. I then placed my ear on the rail of the vessel, when I was
continually charmed with the most heavenly strains that ever fell upon
my ear. They did not sound as close to us, but were sweet, and mellow,
and ærial; like the soft breathings of a thousand lutes, touched by the
soft fingers of the deep sea nymphs, at an immense distance. To the
lone mariner, far from home and kindred, at the still hour of twilight,
the notes were soothing, but melancholy.
“‘Although I have considerable ‘music in my soul,’ one night I
became tired, and determined to fish. My luck in half an hour was
astonishing――I had half filled my bucket with the finest white cat-fish
I ever saw; and it being late, and the cook asleep, and the moon
shining, I filled my bucket with water, and took fish and all into my
cabin for the night.
“‘I had not yet fallen asleep, when the same sweet notes fell upon
my ear; and getting up, what was my surprise to find my ‘cat-fish’
discoursing sweet sounds to the sides of my bucket.
“‘I examined them closely, and discovered that there was attached to
each lower lip an excrescence, divided by soft wiry fibres, and by the
pressure of the upper lip thereon, and by the exhalation and discharge
of breath, a vibration was created similar to that produced by the
breath on the tongue of the jewsharp.’”
Tea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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