Browse:Tree and Moss (Volume 1, entries 391–392)
Tree and Moss
Volume 1, entries 391–392. Source context: SPIRITS → SPIRITS GUARD BURIED TREASURE. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 391
Gwynn's Island [Gwynn on maps], it's up the [Chesapeake] Bay about forty-five miles up. A man there goes into the woods and by him going into this Woods he see some trees, and these trees look like they was in a diff'rent form from the others. There was a lot of green moss. and by this green moss being there he goes to work and commence digging. He dug up a chest of money.
Entry 392
I heard one time that a man went out in the woods, he went out to dig some money and while he was out there digging - four men were out there digging - a woman came and sit by them all in white. The one that was reading the Bible - he got frightened and started to run. When he started to run the fellows what Was digging started right behind him. When he got out on the road - the spirit had left them out in the woods and run ahead of them. They managed to get by some kinda way. One of the men he lived in the country, he was quite old, and the three young men left him behind. When they got up to the house he [the old man] was sitting on the porch laughing and talking. So then they decided to go back and fastened this hole up. They went back the next day and they claim they couldn't find this place when they went back. This was out in a hickorynut woods right near a big tree with moss all over it and they had a stick there. They say when you mark a place and go back you won't see it no more at all. That was just about three miles from Hampton. [The old man outrunning young men - a dog is sometimes added - is a folk-tale theme long since worn threadbare by comedians.] [Hampton, Va., (31), Ed.1