The Charlotte Journal

From the Vicksburg (Miss.) Register.

A DEATH'S HEAD.

We can vouch for the truth, in substance, of the following anecdote, as we had it from the lips of the gentleman concerned, who was then, and is now, an eminent physician, not given to the marvellous—not addicted to the embellishment of facts.

It will be recollected that in the summer of 1823, the Yellow Fever appeared in Natchez and its vicinity, in the most terrific malignity. The last stage of this disease is almost invariably attended with delirium, during which, we can speak from experience, the patient, sometimes, at least, suffers all that we can conceive, of the torments of the damned—not so much from the consciousness of bodily pain, but from a burning fever of the brain, which conjures up scenes the most horrible.

It was a case like this, at the hospital, to which the medical aid of Dr. — was called in requisition. Before he arrived, however, the individual was dead. He had died, like many others during the panic usually attending this terrible destroyer, without the attendance of a nurse. From the distorted appearance of the face, the mouth and eyes widely distended like those of a maniac, it was evident that the disease (six or seven hours duration) had been of the most malignant type, and had terminated with a high stage of inflammation of the brain. The Doctor then young in practice, and who has since spared no exertion to collecting professional information, commenced at once an examination of the body. Before he had concluded the dissection however, his services were required at the house of a planter near Natchez. Determined to examine the brain on the subject, the Doctor severed the head from the trunk, enveloped it in his handkerchief, and took it with him. It was now dark, and as he approached the house of his patient, he was at a loss to determine what to do with the head. His eyes were at length attracted by a hen-coop in the yard, and there he made the deposit. Not many minutes had elapsed before another messenger arrived to beg his immediate aid in another quarter. The Doctor leaving the House with haste, and being naturally a little abstracted, forgot the head. The next morning, however, the Doctor, on visiting the patient, was discovered by one of the servants, somewhat surreptitiously peeping into the hen coop aforesaid. This led of course to an inquiry for the "bundle," which the Doctor stated he had deposited there the night before, and that it had been removed. The negro, smiling, somewhat insignificantly at the idea that the Doctor had made free with his master's hen coop, replied that he knew nothing of the bundle, but added that two turkeys had been stolen the night before. And so it turned out. The same day the "bundle," and the turkeys were found side by side at the corner of a fence about a quarter of a mile from the house. In consequence of rain a few hours before the robbery of the coop, the ground was soft and the negro concerned in the theft was easily tracked to a neighboring plantation. Inquiry being immediately made in relation to the circumstances, the negro not having yet recovered from his fright, came forward and confessed himself the thief. It appears, that in taking the turkeys, he added the "bundle" in question to the plunder, but had not proceeded far before his curiosity induced him to ascertain its contents. Tying the legs of the turkeys together, he laid them upon the ground, and seating himself, he commenced the examination. He threw open the folds of the handkerchief—the head stood erect upon the stump of the neck—and the moon just then breaking from clouds, revealed to the almost petrified negro the ghastly countenance, as still struggling in the agonies of death. The negro, in describing his terrors, said all he could recollect at the moment was, that he thought the devil had thrust up his head through the earth—that he distinctly saw fire and smelt brimstone. And he thinks so to this day if he is still living. One good effect at least, attended the circumstance above described. The story of the head having received many extravagant additions from the fruitful imaginations of the negroes, naturally superstitious, became current in the neighborhood, and the mystery of its appearance never having been explained to them, the "hen-coop has never since been molested.