University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Master's Theses 1956 Supernatural Folklore of Rhode Island Eidola Jean Bourgaize University of Rhode Island Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses Recommended Citation Bourgaize, Eidola Jean, "Supernatural Folklore of Rhode Island" (1956). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 909. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/909 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ·. r1 t0IS COLl. SUPERNATURAL FOLKLORE OF RHODE ISL... l\ND BY EIDOLA J EAN BOURGAIZE A THES IS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH I t J, ) II/, I l'I \' I, r I •I ,1 1 11 I I ( UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 1956 ~L\S TER OF ARTS THESIS OF EI DOLA J EAN BOURGAIZE Approved: Ma j or Professor _.....,C::__._..a""""""".... d~""""""jfr.:.....-....;;;G,:-.+-~~~'-='· """""""""'"------ Head of Department ~ ~~c::~ UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISL.AND 1956 ABSTRACT Although folklore has attra cted nati on-wide atten­ tion in the past forty years, the task of coll ecting folk material peculia r to Rho de Island has been neglected. Several recently-published volumes have included small portions of Rhode Island folklore, but this amount has been very limited. In the past one hundred years a number of individuals have s hown interest in one particular town or section of the sta te and have gat hered material p erti­ nent t o their cause. No one in t he past fifty years has made an effort to compile folklore material about the state as a wh ole a nd present it in one unified piece. If all types of folklore were included in this investiga tion, the study would be t oo lengthy for much consideration on any one topic. Therefore, one of t he most neglected areas in t his field was chosen, t hat of supernatural folklore. The principal purpose behind this thesis is not to solve a problem or draw a conclusion; it is t o help recon­ struct a portion of the spiritual, historical, and literary heritage of Rhode I s land, not as exemplified by the outstand­ ing works of poets and thinkers, but as represented by the more or less inarticula te voices of t he folk. The mass of legends and traditions a nd superstitions loosely grouped together under the heading of supernatural iii folklore embraces wonders of colonial days when the hand of God displayed itself in marvelous providences, gossip of witches bruited in every town a nd hamlet, imagined interviews and contracts with Satan inspired respect for the Evil One, and accounts of specters, visions, omens, and prophecies documented the human awe of occultism. Since only Rhode Island folklore is here involved, just that material which could be definitely attributed to the sta te is included. Because folklore does not hesita te to cross sta te boundaries, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether a particula r tradition or custom or legend was common knowledge in the state at one time. A belief known to be current in Massachusetts might possibly have been accepted in t his state as well, but a definite state­ ment to that effect in a reliable source is needed for posi­ tive p roof. All material which was termed as 11 c.urrent in New England" or naccepted up the coast from New York to Penobscot Bay 11 was not included in this collection. In this study direct oral s ources of folklore are bypassed, with two exceptions, slnce the aim has been to loca te, a r range, and present folklore material lodged in print. The conclusion does contain a measuring stick for t he quality of folk t ales, and stories in this thesis are compared for these fundamental characteristics, but thi s does not overshadow the major and simpler aim of treasuring t he idle tale and fading legend of the past. iv TABLE OF CONT ENTS Page ABSTRACT .. 111 INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter I. THE THREE RACES . 11 II. THE DEVIL IN RHODE ISLAND 28 III. WITCHES AND FORTUNETELLERS . 39 IV. GHOSTS AND APPARITIO NS jL~ v. SEA TALES AND TRADITIO NS • 75 VI. THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL . 88 CONCLUSION . 101 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . 108 BIBLIOGRAPHY • . 109 v INTRODUCTION Folklore in the United States is a massive, vital, and portentous heritageo At first the unreflectively possessed memory of an ancient mother and an antique land, it has begun to achieve an unselfconscious ex­ pression of the experience of a continent that has wrought deep changes in human habits, attitudes, and outlooks. In its relation with literature it has been both borrower and lender. Indeed, present day means of communication and record are so swift and so nearly universal that they tend to sweep away the criteria of differentiation. Phonograph, radio, and sound movie now expand indefinitely the range of oral transmission. At the same time, with universally accessible print in­ telligible to a literate people, they diminish the need for memory. Folklore may instantly become literature, and literature may speedily travel the road to folklore. Their interaction may threaten to invalidate the "tra­ ditional" folklorists' criteria, but it will be bene­ ficial for both. Thomas Mann makes Mai-Sache, Joseph's wise and humane jailer, say, "There are, so far as I can see, two kinds of poetry: .. one springs from folk­ simplici ty, the other from the literary gift in es­ sence. The second is undoubtedly the higher form. But in my view it cannot flourish cut off from the other, needing it as a plant needs soil."l Folklore has definitely come of age, and it is now recognized as an important part of the literary heritage of the nation. A well-known folklore scholar, Alexander Haggerty Krappe, wrote twenty-five years ago: I conceive folk tales and folk songs as purely literary manifestations of the popular genius, acting under the same impulses as the productive mind of literary men, scholars, and artists. The two differ only in much the same things in which different lit­ erary schools are apt to be at variance, that is, in 1Robert E. Spiller and others (eds.), Literarffi History of the United States (New York: The Macmillan Co., 19 8), II, 727. 1 2 questions of taste and methods of technique •••• The critical standards of the eighteenth century are a thing of the past, fortunately, and many other things beside folk-lore which did not meet with the approval of Voltaire and Pope, are yet ranked as the very hig~­ est expressions of artistic feeling and inspiration. Yet for all the praise and interest given to the study of folklore in recent years, no exact agreement has been reached as to the meaning of the term itself. The word was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian, William John Thoms, to take the place of the rather awkward expression of "popu­ lar antiquities." He wished to designate "that department of the study of antiquities and archeol0gy which embraces everything relating to ancient observances and customs, to the notions, beliefs, traditions, superstitions, and preju­ dices of the common people."3 Since that time, however, the .. scope of folklore has broadened to include arts and crafts, dances, drama, festivals, games, music, as well as other activities which individual scholars have seen fit to intro- duce. Folklore collections in the United States properly began with the first issue of the Journal of American Folklore in 1888, but serious and widespread study of folk literature in America did not get underway until 1910 when John A. Lomax published Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.4 In the 2Alexander Haggerty Krappe, The Science of Folk Lore (New York: The Dial Press, 1930}, P• x. 3Marian Roalfe Cox, An Introduction to Folklore (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895), P• 4. 4Spiller, op. cit., III, 192. 3 past forty years there have been almost as many definitions of folklore as scholars in the field. A two-volume folklore dictionary has devoted five pages to definitions by twenty­ one authors. A random sampling from these definitions shows the slight divergencies of interpretation of the term. Jonas Balys: Folklore comprises traditional creations of peoples, primitive and civilized. These are achieved by using sounds and words in metric . form and prose, and include also folk beliefs or superstitions, customs and per­ formances, dances and plays. Moreover, folklore is not a science about a folk, but the traditional folk­ science and folk poetry.5 B.A. Botkin: In a purely oral culture everything is folklore. In modern society what distinguishes folklore from the rest of culture is the preponderance of the handed-down over the learned element and the prepotency that the popular imagin~tion derives from and gives to custom and tradition. Aurelio M. Espinosa: Folklore, or popular knowledge, is the accumulated store of what mankind has experienced, learned, and practiced across the ages as popular and traditional knowledge, as distinguished from so-called scientific knowledge.? George M. Foster: ••• to me the term ''folklore" is most meaningful when applied to the unwritten litera§y manifestations of all peoples, literate or otherwise. M. Harmon: Folklore is something which the individual has in common 5Funk and Wa Mytholog~, an Legen Ibid. 7Ibid., P• 399. 8 rbid. 4 with his fellows, just as all have eyes and hands and speech. It is not contrary to himself as an individual but a part of his equipment.