Book excerpt: This is the story of a generation that is passing, of a people whom I have known only in their latter years. No character in this book is the portrait of any actual person. The data here presented are not fabrications of mine. I have recorded the tales that were told to me in backwoods cabins, around wilderness campfires, on long rides over mountain trails, beside little stills on big hollows.The songs included are true folk-songs which I have heard in the back hills, sung by people who did not learn them from any book. The superstitions mentioned are genuine folk-beliefs.