Smokey Mountain Breakdown

The discussion had started with Scott in the truck one day. I'm not sure exactly how the subject matter turned to the pre-birth "marking". I think I was asking if he had heard about this imaginary birth defect mentioned in Catherine Marshall's Christy. I wanted to know if any of the superstitions regarding births had survived from that time.

One of Scott's cousins (all of Scott's relatives will be called 'cousins' since I'm not quite sure how to describe exactly how everyone is related to Scott) was "marked" by a mule. Her mother, while pregnant, had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to escape an aggressive mule. His cousin was born with a mule shaped birthmark on her lower back.

Scott tells me another cousin who was born retarded who was "marked" by a horse. This was a much more severe "marking". The mother was frightened by a horse while pregnant. The baby was born with a mane of sorts. A narrow stripe of hair that grew down the spine.

I brought this topic up a woman I visit yesterday. She knew about Scott's relatives' markings and was able to fill in some blanks Scott had in the telling of the tales. She also related a tale of a woman she knew who worked at an orphanage. One of the children in her care was white from the waist up and black from the waist down. The parents had abandoned the child since it was so severely "marked". This had the ring of truth and I think I recognized a mosaic twin in this story.

An acquaintance's grandson is "marked" on his legs with port wine birthmarks. She isn't sure how his "marking" occurred but it is assumed that something scared his mother when she was pregnant.

These sorts of superstitions surrounding birthmarks, deformities and retardation were commonplace and widely accepted in the nineteenth century. But they are still regarded to be fact here.

Finally, as she warms to the topic, she relates this fantastic, grotesque tale. She loves any sort of story dealing with birthing.

Her face gets her serious storytelling look. It's a sort of look that goes with speaking in a half-whisper, even if we are the only ones in the room.

"Were this woman that lived down the holler. She lived with a German Shepherd."

Yikes. I know what's coming. I don't want to hear this.

"And I want you to know...she got pregnant by that dog!"

She is quite enjoying this tale. She looks outraged.

"When that baby were born, they had to kill that dog to get at her. It were born looking like a dog. It died."

"Oh, no!" I say. "You know that can't be true."

She gives me the stock phrase that is undeniable proof that the story is indeed true.

"I swear! It were in the paper. You can look it up!"