Observations & Reflections on Texas Folklore Page: 6
viii, 151 p. : ill., ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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J. Frank Dobie
And now I saw a deer under a willow tree, near the edge of the
water, between me and the mesquite-hidden doe. It also was horn-
less, a doe. She began coming toward me, now and then nipping a
bite of vegetation. When within about forty yards she gave a start-
led look and there I saw two fawns-called "yearlings," though they
will not be a year old until May or June. All three came where the
first doe and fawn had come. I could have counted the hairs in the
eyebrows of one of them, or roped it had I had a rope and been a
little faster than greased lightning. One of them went to wading in
shallow water, nipping tops from a kind of weed. I could hear the
light splashes of feet in the water and mud.
Now it was growing too dark to make out any object more than
a few yards away. I heard the jeep coming and the deer heard a
man get out of it to come to me. They were gone. I had had a won-
derful evening's hunt-and what good company! I had not seen a
buck but I had been expecting for two hours and had been enter-
tained beyond expectation the whole time.
Yet being entertained by sidelines can cost a hunter his deer. The
biggest buck I ever saw I missed because I was not single-minded in
purpose as any expert hunter should be. It was on a high hill of
black chaparral in La Salle County overlooking a vast country in-
cluding wide sacahuiste flats along the Nueces River. What a fine
place for a Comanche or Lipan sentinel, I thought, and for a signal
smoke. I went scouting about for the site of a fire. I had found a
rough circle of smoked rocks and was searching the ground for
arrowheads when I looked up and saw a mighty-antlered buck,
almost black, his hips as wide as a Spanish mule's. He was looking
at me when I raised up, and in a second he was out of sight.
The first thing that took me away from the world after I started
out on a recent hunt was a vast congregation of blackbirds in the
Comal valley near New Braunfels. They were not all in one flock.
There were several flocks, some flying, some alighting. I stopped
my car to one side of the road and got out to watch them. I esti-
mated that there might be a mile long flight of the blackbirds, all
taken together, and that the width of the flights might average
fifty feet. There seemed to be one bird to the square foot in the
dark masses. If so, 50 times 5280 feet would make 264,000 black-
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Observations & Reflections on Texas Folklore (Book)
Collection of popular folklore of Texas, including stories about hunting, warfare, religion, Texas traditions, and other miscellaneous folk tales. The index begins on page 149.
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Abernethy, Francis Edward. Observations & Reflections on Texas Folklore, book, 1972; Austin, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc77208/m1/16/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.