TALL TALES
OF
CAPE COD
It Pays to Keep the Sabbath Day
TALL TALES
OF CAPE COD
by
MARILLIS BITTINGER
With Illustrations by
Bruce Adams
THE MEMORIAL PRESS
PLYMOUTH · MASSACHUSETTS
1948
TALL TALES OF CAPE COD
Copyright, 1948, by
THE MEMORIAL PRESS
All rights in this book are reserved.
Designed and Printed by
THE MEMORIAL PRESS
PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS
To My Father, who Mother says
tells the tallest tales of them all,
and who helped me in the preparation
of this book.
... Introduction
There is not a part of the United States that does nothave its share of fascinating folklore. From the coastof California and its legends of gold, to the hardy NewEngland shores, rich with its stories of shrewd Yankeepeddlers, personalities and fables march back from thepast and implant themselves into the region as firmlyand lastingly as the giant redwoods of California or thehuge elm-arches of Yarmouth on Cape Cod. An integralpart of sectionalized history, American folkloreholds its own as a meter by which we may judge andunderstand those hardy men and women who took thenew world in their hands and molded its character forthe generations to come.
The title of this volume is perhaps misleading. TallTales of Cape Cod they are, yes, but in a broadersense that are the feel and the basis of a way of life.These fables and superstitions, personalities and adventurescannot be labeled merely Tall Tales, for theywere such an important part of life on Cape Cod thatto think of the narrow land without them would be impossible.
The stories I have presented here are, in a sense,true. Some of them are original, that is, products ofmy own imagination, fired by the Cape and its history.Others are as old as the Cape itself, and have been repeatedtime and again. Still others have been gleanedfrom conversation with Cape Cod folk and from theinvaluable old books which I have been fortunateenough to have made available to me.
It would be impossible for me to state the credulityof the tales found in this volume, that is a matter entirel