THE PLAT-EYE
All low-country negroes believe more or less in “sperrits,” “haants” and other mysterious appearances, but the “plat-eye,” peculiar to the Georgetown coast, is the weirdest and most fearsome that vexes the roaming negroes at night. Plat-eyes appear to old and young of both sexes, sometimes in the form of a small dog or other animal, while at other times they may float like wraiths along the marshes or unfrequented paths, or stoop like low-hung clouds and envelop the victim. Most frequently, however, the plat-eye appears in the form of some familiar animal which, glaring at the beholder with eyes of fire, springs upon him, frightening him into rigidity, and, just as he expects his vitals to be torn out, the apparition vanishes, and the trembling negro hurries on his way. The belief has been expressed that, in some instances, the negroes to whom plat-eyes appear have fallen asleep as they walked, and, dreaming of these terrors, awakened to find them gone. In whatsoever form they come, however, the negroes dread the visitations as Werewolves were feared in Europe not so long ago.
Now, old Jane, the cook at the Pawley’s Island summer hotel, the many-times widowed woman who, having saved the life of Esau, the fisherman, by drenching him with horse liniment after he had partaken too freely of the spoils of his lines, had wedded that same Esau to save herself the reproach of oldmaidenhood, and had chased him away the morning after herMarriage de Convenance, was a fervent and fearful believer in plat-eyes. Whenever and wherever shewent her ways at night, she was on the lookout for them, and the expectation of their momentary appearance kept her nerves in a pleasant state of jumpiness. A stray calf at the edge of the clearing, a raccoon ambling along a woodland path, a sudden rabbit bouncing up before her, the horned owl that lifted her wayward fowls from their runaway roost on the ridgepole of her cabin, even the ghostly sandcrabs that drifted along the beaches at night as lightly as wind-blown foam, were all potential plat-eyes!
Two weeks had passed since Jane, the self-made celibate, had ejected the transitory husband of her bosom from the “bed and board” to which, under colored custom, if not under State law, he was supposed to be entitled. Esau wandered about, following his usual vagrant occupations, but vaguely conscious of his rather indefinite status as a husband—responsibilities there were none. Jane, to whom the marriage had brought wifehood—in the abstract, and very real things in the dotted-swiss and the white stockings of her bridal outfit—being withal as free and untrammeled in her property and her person as she had been before the episode, felt herself the gainer, and, to do her justice, regarded Esau rather as a slaughtered innocent. In respect of one small matter, however, Esau, too, had gained something. During his tentative courtship, or rather while, without his knowledge, Jane had had him under consideration, he chopped wood and did other chores for her without specific contract for compensation, for Jane was then an unrelated and unconnected female of the species, and he willingly performed these gallantries for her; but once married, even though she had so speedily and unceremoniouslydivorced, or put him away, she was yet his woman—in thought at least, his chattel—and, harking back to his African ancestry, he bethought him that women were but hewers of wood and drawers of water, the domestic slaves of the lordly males, and, before laying hand to axe or stooping to pick up chips or driftwood, he never failed to bargain and chaffer with the cook for what she should pay him—at the expense of the lady of the house.
“Esau, uh wish you please kin pick up some chip’ fuh me fuh staa’t me fiah.”
“Wuh you gwi’ gimme?”
“Wuffuh me haffuh pay you fuh chop wood, Esau?”
“Enty uh done marri’d you fuh wife? Wuffuh man haffuh chop wood fuh ’e own wife?”
“Uh marri’d you, fuh true, Esau, but enty uh done run you off, en’ now you stan’ same lukkuh all dem todduh man wuh uh nebbuh bin hab fuh husbun’?”
Esau scratched his head, the point being rather fine for his comprehension, but he grunted stubbornly, nevertheless.
“Man hab wife fuh cook ’e bittle fuhr’um, enty? Hukkuh ooman kin cook bittle bidout ’e chop wood, eeduhso pick up chip’ fuh mek fiah? No, ma’am! Wuh you gwine gimme fuh eat ef uh chop wood fuh you?” Therefore, whenever Esau chopped wood, the hotel kitchen paid the fee.
September burned and passed away. October came. Among the brown and purple trunks of the pines, the red-bronze foliage of blackgum and sourwood glowed like dull fires. Tripods rose above the breakers, and, from the vantage of their elevated tops, the Islanders fished with rod and reel for the beautiful channel basswhich came up with the rising tide. The long rollers crashed upon the strand and broke into lace-like spray that the sea-wind tossed into a thousand miniature rainbows. The plaintive cry of the sea-birds, the whisper of the wild-oats as their ripening seed panicles rustled in the wind, and the sharp tang in the air, brought to the spirit the poignant sadness of autumn—“Falling Leaf and Fading Tree,” and Tosti’s haunting melody.
On a certain night, Jane permitted Esau’s escort to a cottage two miles up the beach, whither she had undertaken an errand for her employer. The night was dark and overcast, and the air was heavy with a promise of coming rain. A fitful breeze picked up the loose sand above highwater mark into little whorls, sent them dancing about the upper beach, and set the clumps of wild-oats on the dunes above to shivering weirdly. The tide was at the flood, and the long dun rollers boomed sullenly on the beach and sucked at the sands as though loath to leave them.
As she got farther away from the comforting lights of the hotel and adventured into the creepy darkness that lay before her, Jane shuddered, and lifted the shawl from her shoulders over her bandanna-topped head as though to shut out from her apprehensive ears all fearsome sounds. Esau shuffled along beside her, but he, too, was uncomfortable, for he was a timid negro, and even the boldest are none too brave at night.
A sudden gust of wind lifted the foam cap from a breaking wave, blew it in their faces and whistled eerily through the wild-oats. A ghost crab sprang up at their very feet and scurried away, affrighted. Janeclutched Esau’s arm. “Great Gawd!” she groaned, “duh plat-eye!Uh shum! uh shum!”
“Weh-weh ’e dey?” stammered her frightened but less imaginative escort.
Before she could point to the flying crab, another pallid, spider-like creature drifted across her path and followed the first. Jane was poised for flight, but Esau stood firm and steadied her nerves, and in a few moments they moved on again, but with wide eyes and hesitant steps. At last they had covered half the distance, and a mile away, beyond the dark, a spot of yellow light marked their goal, which they might have reached but for the raccoons’ love for shell fish. At a low spot in the broad beach the tide had eaten out a narrow channel through which the waters rushed almost up to the sand-hills, bringing small fish and shrimp and clams far beyond the break of the rollers, and, at the entrance to this cut, facing the ocean, a big raccoon was fishing at the moment the negroes reached the tidal rivulet and paused to look for a crossing. Esau, with trousers rolled up to his knees, adventured first, and as Jane, “standing with reluctant feet,” on the marge, called to him to ask the depth, she unhappily cast her eyes seaward just as the four-footed fisherman, startled by the voices behind him, wheeled, and turned his round, green eyes full upon them. As their sinister light shone fearsomely against the dark background of the waves, Jane shrieked in agony. “Oh Jedus! de plat-eye! de plat-eye!” And, turning tail, she fled along the back track, screaming at every jump. Esau’s gallantry, and one look at the shining eyes, prompted him to follow Jane, which he did at top speed, while the wretched raccoon, frightened outof his supper by the havoc he had unwittingly wrought, lost no time in attaining sanctuary among the scrub beyond the sand-hills.
On sped Jane. Her screaming-wind gave out after the first hundred yards, and, save for her labored breathing, she ran silently, Esau, a black shadow, close behind. In an incredibly short time, Jane and her runner-up reached the hotel, speechless with exhaustion and fright. When she had recovered her breath, Jane hurried to her mistress. “Missis, ma’am, uh nebbuh tek de ansuh wuh you sen’ to da’ juntlemun todduh side de Ilun’, ’cause uh nebbuh git dey, Missis; en’, ef Jedus yeddy me, uh nebbuh fuh gone to da’ place no mo’ duh night-time! Missis, dem plat-eye t’ick ’puntop da’ beach sukkuh fiddluh crab’ t’ick een de maa’sh w’en tide low! Uh binnuh walk ’long Esau, en’ one sumpn’nurruh come off de wabe’ top, en’ ’e float by me sukkuh cloud wuh hab uh sperrit een’um. Uh shet me yeye, en’ ’e gone. Den de win’ mek uh jump, en’ ’e biggin fuh shake dem grass en’ t’ing ’puntop de san’hill ’tell ’e mek me hair fuh rise! Same time uh see two w’ite sperrit run ’cross de paat’. Esau binnuh trimble ’tell uh graff’um by ’e sleebe fuh keep’um f’um run’way, but none de t’ing nebbuh hab uh chance fuh t’row dem eye ’puntop me ’tell uh git to de place weh de tide bruk t’ru de beach. W’en uh git dey, Missis, Esau roll up ’e britchiz fuh cross. Me duh wait ’tell him git ’cross befo’ uh staa’t’ fuh hice me ’coat fuh walk t’ru’um, en’, ef me Jedus didn’ tell me fuh t’row me yeye fuh look roun’, uh nebbuh would’uh bin yuh, but w’en uh look, uh see da’ t’ing’ two eye’ duh shine sukkuh lightship’ eye’ shine ’puntop’uh Rattlesnake shoal’! Missis, w’en uh fus’ look’puntop’um uh t’ink ’e duh lightship fuh true, but bumbye ’e shake ’e head en’ uh know suh ’e duh plat-eye, en’ ’e duh try fuh t’row uh spell ’puntop me fuh mek me fuh dead! Uh yent hab time fuh kneel down, but uh staa’t fuh pray een me h’aa’t, en’ uh baig Gawd, ef da’ plat-eye haffuh ketch nigguh, fuh mek’um fuh ketch Esau en’ lef me, ’cause, Missis, eb’rybody know’ suh Esau ent wut! But seem lukkuh Gawd nebbuh yeddy de pray’, ’cause me mout’ bin shet w’en uh mek’um, ’cause uh yent wan’ Esau fuh yeddy wuh uh say, en’ de plat-eye nebbuh tek ’e yeye off’uh my’own. ’E look en’ ’e look, en’ ’e yeye git mo’ bigguh en’ mo’ shiny, en’ w’en uh see suh him duh look ’puntop’uh me en’ ent duh study ’bout Esau, Missis,uh comin’ fuh home! Missis, you see dog run, you see hawss run, you see bu’d fly, en’ you see pawpus jump een de ribbuh, but you nebbuh see none dem t’ing trabble lukkuh me trabble w’en uh staa’t fuh run! W’en me ten toe’ dig een de du’t, ’e t’row de san’ mo’nuh half uh acre behin’ me! De win’ wuh uh mek t’row dem wil’oats en’ grass en’ t’ing flat ’pun de groun’, en’ all de time uh duh run uh yeddy Esau’ foot duh beat drum behin’ me, en’ w’en uh yeddy’um, uh tengkful, ’cause uh know da’ t’ing fuh ketch him fus’ ’fo’ ’e kin git me; en’, Missis, ef you ain’ hab no ’jeckshun, ma’am, uh gwine tek Esau fuh husbun’ ’gen, ’cause, attuh tenight, uh know suh me kin run fas’ mo’nuh him, en’ him will be uh nyuseful t’ing fuh tek ’long w’en uh duh walk duh paa’t duh night-time, ’cause, ef plat-eye mek alltwo uh we fuh run, him’bleegefuh ketch Esaufus’, en’, alldo’ da’ nigguh ent wut, ’e hab shishuh slow foot, Missis, uh kin mek’um fuh sabe me life!”