Quote:
There is an old African American folk tale concerning the death of one of the elder members of a family who lived in a log cabin in a rural area just outside Roanoke. One evening, as the newly departed gentleman laid peacefully in his coffin in the main room of the cabin, family members were “sitting up with the dead,” the time-honored tradition of the wake. They had put some potatoes to roast on the fire, but as it was late at night, they had fallen asleep.
By chance, two hunters came upon the place, perhaps drawn by the smoke from the chimney. They peered through a window, and being famished, they quickly devised a diabolical plan. They slipped into the cabin and stole the potatoes. Before they left, however, they set the head and shoulders of the deceased man up in the coffin, pried his mouth open and put one of the potatoes in it. Then they snuck outside and looked again through the window, waiting to see what happened when the others woke up.
The first person awoke, stretched and looked back toward the body. He then let out the most bloodcurdling scream and shouted, “Grandpa done come to and eat up all the potatoes! There he sits with one in his mouth!” He then lit out of the cabin as fast as his legs would carry him. The others, aroused, followed in close pursuit.
The last one out, however, in his haste, caught his suspenders on the door latch, which had a hook on it. Fearing that he had been grabbed by the corpse, he fainted dead away. It was quite some time before any of the others went back to check on him.
