The Death Of Blackbeard, --- Does His Ghost Still Terrorize Bath, North Carolina?...

                     
                        "So each man to his gun,
                        For the work must be done,
                        With Cutlass, sword and pistol
                        And, when we can no longer strike a blow,
                        Then, fire the magazine, boys, and up we go!
                        It's better to swim in the sea below
                        Than to swing in the air and feed the crow,
                        Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol."

         --- This was supposedly from a sailor's song written by Ben Franklin.

                               ***********************

     This is from the log of the man who killed Blackbeard or Edward Teach, Tache, or Thatch, whichever version of his last name you prefer, --- Lieutenant Robert Maynard: "Mod gales and fair Weather, this day I recd from Capt. Gordon, an Order to Command 60 Men out of his Majesties Ships Pearle and Lyme, on board two small Sloops, in Order to destroy Some pyrates, who resided in N Carolina, This day Weigh'd, & Sail'd hence with ye Sloops undr my Command, having on board Proviso of all species with Arms, & Ammunition Suitable for ye occasiion."

    Governor Spotwood of North Carolina under pressure of many traders approached the commanders of ships about getting rid of Blackbeard and his cronies.  He issued a proclamation offering a reward of a hundred pounds for Blackbeard and lesser rewards of twenty, fifteen and ten pounds for his crewmen.  Maynard was the commander of the Jane, which sought out Black beard on his sloop "The Adventure", where it was anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke Island at Pamlico Sound on November 22, 1718.

     Captain Charles Johnson in his "General History Of ... The Most Notorious Pyrates", published in London in 1724, records this great, colorful and often quoted conversation between Blackbeard and Maynard, --- "Blackbeard hail'd him in this rude Manner: Damn you for Villains, who are you?  And, whence came you?  The Lieutenant make him Answer, You may see by our Colours we are no Pyrates.  Blackbeard bid him send his Boat on Board, that he might see who he was but Mr Maynard reply'd thus; I cannot spare my Boat, but I will come aboard of  you as I can, with my Sloop.  Upon this Blackbeard took a Glass of Liquor, & drank to him with these Words: Damnation seize my soul if I give you Quarters (***meaning mercy), or take any from you.  In Answer to which, Mr Maynard told him, That he expected no Quarters from him, nor should he give him any."

                        

     Maynard's sloop the Jane came toward the Adventure.  Blackbeard then loaded a cannon with shot and metal scraps and fired, killing five of Maynard's men.  Maynard then shot away the Adventure's jib, forcing her to go to shore.  Blackbeard and his men then came aboard the Jane, Blackbeard shouting, ---  "Let's jump onboard and cut them to pieces!"  A desperate hand-to-hand fight began with muskets and swords.  Blackbeard eventually fell dead, decapitated, and with twenty other slashes to him and shot with five musket balls.  His body was thrown over board, his head hung from the Jane's bowsprit.        
   
     Strange stories about Blackbeard have sprung up around Bath, North Carolina.  It is said that his tall spectral body stomps about at night, his heavy booted footsteps echoing from wooden boards, demanding in a loud voice, "WHERE BE ME BLASTED HEAD?...  WHERE???...  Fer I can nay go to meet me mentor, Ol' Nick, the Devil, without it!"  Strong winds blow at gale force and sand is flung against windows in the dark when Blackbeard's ghost walks.

     Well...  There is a story that his head was made into a punch bowl and that his search may, indeed, be a very long one!

     Yes, it is said that along the seacoast, and especially at "Teach's Hole", the popular name for the place where Blackbeard was killed (at Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Inlet), that the headless body of Blackbeard swims around and around under water, on moonless nights, holding a lantern that emits an eerie greenish yellow glow. Of course, Captain Teach is searching vainly for his head!

     (I have been to Beaufort, North Carolina. It's really worth going to the Maritime Museum there.  They have artifacts of Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. )    

             

Who Are The Faeries, --- Really?...

               

     Who, or what, are the fey?  Some say they are evil spirits who fell from heaven during a great battle with Michael and the other angels.  Some say they are gods and goddesses.  Some say they nature spirits or even that they are extra terrestrials.  Many scoff and say they don't exist, but, lots think there's something or someone very strange out there, that we humans are not alone, that there are ancient portals between their world and our's, portals that are more open at certain times of the year...

     Various people throughout history have claimed to see faeries.  It's call The Sight and is very, very, very rare.  Folklore says that the fey often kidnap and take to Faerie Lands those who have the sight because they don't like having their activities publicized among humans.  Too, handsome young men and beautiful young women are especially vulnerable to being abducted.

     There are good and bad faeries.  The good faeries are called the Seelie Court.  The bad faeries are called the Unseelie Court.  There are air, water, earth and fire fey, --- comprising the four elements.  (Air fey, - like sylphs, water fey, - merpeoples, earth fey, - gnomes, etc., fire fey, - salamanders, --- for instance).

     Faeries like lovers, poets, children (They are often drawn by the laughter of very young children playing outdoors.) and fools, those who are innocent and pure of heart, the kind and the generous, those who will give freely without expecting anything back.  They detest misers, sluggards, noisy people and the cruel.

     Faeries are easily offended and take their revenge in extremely creative ways.  Country folks in olden times have called them The Good People, The Gentle Ones, The Little People, but fey are not really gentle, or always little.  (In fact, they're basically capricious and wildly unpredictable.)  Some are very, very wicked and have huge, monstrous forms.  But, then, maybe, the fey take forms only as a whim, and only because humans expect it.  They may really be entirely incorporeal.

     Faerie lore is all over the world, in Europe, especially in the Celtic lands, --- Ireland and on the Isle Of Man, the Orient and even Native American tribes have legends of faeries.  Folk lore has recorded these olden beliefs.  I find them intruiging.

          

Re-told Tale: The Faerie Market (Whatever Would Be Sold There???) ...

               
                     
     Surely, a faerie market would not be like an average flea market or a simple outdoor vegetable market held on a Saturday morning in a town square!  It might be in an evil looking, remote and murky woods.  Hmmm...  Do you think that fresh deadly nightshade would be sold there?

     Christina Rossetti in her poem, about the evil "The Goblin Market",  "do not to eat their fruits...  For who knows upon what they fed their evil, thirsty roots?"  (Ummm...  Goblins, of course, are of the Unseelie Court, the bad faeries.)

     It is said in faerie lore that the fey vigorously protect their privacy and loathe being spied on.  Humans who unsuspectingly came upon a faerie market full of merrily gabbling little folk dressed in green, red and blue, the little men in top hats and smoking long white clay pipes, the tiny women in immaculate white aprons and caps, --- yes, perhaps while strolling over a misty moor in the very early morning, might pay dearly by being struck with rheumatism for the rest of their lives.  Or, if they were actually able to buy anything at a faerie market, might find that their purchase of beautiful jewelry or a fine little pony, for which they paid good coin,  had turned to dried leaves, a stinking fungus or a noisily croaking little frog the next day.

     Faeries are very tricky!!!

Re-told Tale: The Faerie Lord At The Bottom Of The Well...

     This old Celtic tale is sometimes called "Cherry, The Maiden Of Zendor"...

     Cherry was a silly young thing who loved loved to laze around.  As a result of this her father eventually told her to go to the town square and sit there, supposedly, to ask those who came along if they needed a maid to serve in their households.  Now, Cherry, besides being very indolent, was a very pretty girl, so a prosperous and fine looking gentleman, a lord, happened to take notice of her.

     He said that he had a vast estate not far away and that he was in need of someone to take care of his young son as his wife had passed away a short while ago and his housekeeper was elderly and not spry enough to handle an active little boy.

     Cherry eagerly said she would like the job.  She pleased the lord for her duties were light and Cherry was happy too for the lord's home and property were very grand.  The one thing that her employer insisted that Cherry do was to rub a special ointment into her young charge's eyes every day.  This Cherry did faithfully although, the elderly housekeeper, who seemed to detest her, reminded and reminded her, very gruffly, never ever, ever to forget to do it.  (The ointment was made of goose grease and four leafed clovers.  Cherry didn't know this and it wouldn't have made any difference if she had, because Cherry was not a student of faerie lore.  If she had been she would have known that four leafed clovers are extremely, extremely magical and that the ointment was to help the child, who was half faerie, his mother being a human mortal and his father being a faerie lord, to develop the sight, the ability to see into all faerie magic.)

     Well, Cherry and the lord became very friendly and, even quite affectionate, so that Cherry would dream and dream of becoming his wife.  But, then on a warm day as she was drawing a bucket of cool water from one of the estate's wells she happened to look down and what a sight she saw reflected in the water!  Why, at the bottom of the well was the handsome faerie lord dancing with many elegant looking ladies!  Cherry was shocked and called angrily down into the well that he should stop his loose antics!  Immediately, the faerie lord stood beside her.  Sadly, he told Cherry that she must leave that day and never return.  Cherry wept and apologized profusely, but it was no good.  She had to go and she never saw the faerie lord, his son or his beautiful estate again.

                               
         

The Loves Of Blackbeard...

                 

               


Edward Teach or Tach or Thatch was from Bristol, England.  He was tall, muscular dark haired, and very dramatic, an impressive figure.  (Too bad we have no pictures of him!)  Yes, but whether he was handsome would be hard to say, with his black beard plaited and adorned with ribbons.  In addition to being a ruthless pirate, he was also a ladies man.  Quite frankly, he positively loved, LOVED women!  He was truly like the fabled sailor, with a winsome girl in every port.

     He'd dawdle them on his knees, laughing, hugging and kissing them.  Then, carried away in a cloud of gallantry and lust, no doubt, have drunk a lot of rum and ale, before you could say, "Thunder and Damnation!" he'd have married the latest one.  Somehow, it never occurred to him that he REALLY didn't HAVE to marry any of his "wives".  He could have had them anyway...  But, then, Blackbeard loved to play "The Gentleman".  It was just his way.  He really WAS playing; really, he was rather a brute.

   One of the last of his "wives", or maybe, the very last, was said to be Mary Ormond, the sweet and, no doubt, rather naive sixteen year old daughter of a Bath County, North Carolina planter.  Governor Charles Eden performed the posh marriage ceremony. For a while Blackbeard seemed to want to settle in North Carolina, to live the remainder of his life as a sort of country squire.  But, after a while, he began to hunger for the adventure and romance of seafaring, and, of course, lucrative pirating.  He had been granted a pardon by the King of England, but he simply couldn't stand the boredom.  Blackbeard went to sea again.  It is said, by Captain Charles Johnson, in his "A General History Of The Robberies & Murders Of The Most Notorious Pirates", that the wicked devil even brought some of his crewmen to his young wife so that she could "entertain" them while Blackbeard watched.  (Yeah, --- awful!  But, whatever can you expect?)

     Did he have any children?  None are officially recorded.  Blackbeard was killed at Ocracoke Inlet a few months after his last marriage.  Still, it's rumored that he had a daughter.   Wow, --- to think that Blackbeard may have descendants alive today!  It's positively mind boggling!

     

A Recipe For A Healing Herbal Balm...

     You will need fresh herbs for this.  Dried ones won't work.  You will need the herbal oils in the fresh herbs.  But, this balm is easy to make...

     Use petroleum jelly as the base.  Heat the petroleum jelly on your stove until it liquidfies.  Add these fresh, slightly crushed herbs, --- lavender, lemon balm, peppermint or spearmint, thyme, oregano, rosemary, orange peel.  Stir, and heat further util the essence of the herbs goes into the petroleum jelly.  (Be careful the mix doesn't catch fire!  Petroleum jelly is quite flammable!)

     Remove the herbs with a slotted spoon, discard.  Add these essential oils,--- lime, eucalyptus, violet and rose.  Add more or less, according to how you like it.  Stir.  While the mix is still warm pour it into wide mouthed jars.

     This balm is good for chest congestion and muscle aches and pains.  It's great for arthritis.      

Re-told Celtic Tale, --- The Kelpie, The Evil Water Horse...

      The Kelpie is an evil faerie who lurks around ponds and lakes in the British Isles.  He looks like a pretty, friendly pony, but he's really a murderous monster.  He especially likes to kill children.  Once the children touch him they can't let go.  Then, the kelpie dives into the pond to take them to the bottom of the water where it kills and eats them, or the other way around...

     Long, long ago a highland Scottish village was terrorized by a particularly cruel and voracious water horse.  Some people of the village watched in helpless horror as seven children approached to pet the kelpie and then mount his back.  They shouted to the children to get away, --- oh, please, please get away, knowing the creature was a water horse, because they could see his back elongating to make room for each additional child!  But, very sadly, to no avail.  The kelpie dashed into pond and the children were never seen again.

     The people of the village went to a blacksmith to ask him to help them because a kelpie, being a faerie, is very vulnerable to iron, the metal known to be poisonous to all fey.  The blacksmith made a number of special daggers, hooks and pikes to kill the vicious kelpie.  And, bravely, the valiant and skilled blacksmith then slew, by inches, the terrible water horse.

Re-told Celtic Tale, --- Oisin, The Great Hero Of The Fenian Knights & Niahm, The Golden-haired Faerie Queen...

                 
                 

One of the few mortal men to be not captured, but invited to Tir Nan Og, the Land of the Young, was Oisin, son of Fionn Mac Cumhail, the greatest chieftain of the Fenian Knights, the protectors of the High Kings of Ireland.

     The Fenians were out hunting one day when a lady of otherworldly beauty appeared to them.  She was sweet Niamh The Golden-haired, a great and gentle Faerie queen.  Impressed by the splendid warrior Oisin she invited him to Tir Nan Og.  He accepted and in a blink of an eye he was on the back of her Faerie horse, riding behind her as they dashed over the waves for Niamh was a the daughter of Manannan Mac Lir, the Irish god of the sea.

     Soon they were in the Land of the Young where Faerie palaces soared with their towers piercing the clouds and there were endless vistas of green fields dotted with every kind of wild flower and lush fruit trees and vegetable plants.  Oisin lived blissfully with Niahm in Tir Nan Og for three hundred years as the time of Men is counted.   But, time is not the same in Faerie as it is in the World of Men.   And there lies the tragedy of this tale,--- for eventually Oisin longed for remembered good times with his friends, the Fenian brotherhood.

     He told Niahm that he wanted to visit the World of Men.  Niahm warned him that this could be folly and could turn out very, very badly, but Oisin kept asking, asking, asking, asking.  Finally, the great Faerie queen consented, and gave Oisin one of her best Faerie horses for the journey.  On the morning that Oisin was to leave  Niamh stood on the shore, weeping for she feared she would not see Oisin again.  She sternly warned him---Never, NEVER allow your feet to light upon the ground for if you do all you are will come upon you !  Oisin gave his word that he would not and said that after a short visit he would be back in Tir Nan Og.

     Quickly, the horse took Oisin to Ireland, but the land and the people seemed much changed.  Finn and the Fenians had become a legend of the past. The Battle of Gabhra had been fought; St. Patrick had converted much of the Land. Even the men seemed much smaller, so much less heroic.  Oisin noticed three of them trying to lift a large stone .  Oisin thought,--- I could lift that with one hand!  He bent down, still in the saddle, to assist the men when the girth broke.  Oisin was spilled onto the ground.  As soon as he touched the earth his true mortal years returned to him and he became an old, old man, blind and feeble.

     He got a bowl and begged in a town square.  Saint Patrick found Oisin and took pity on the once great hero.  The saint took him to his house and did his best to try to convert Oisin to Christianity, describing the wonders of Heaven and saying it's beauty could be his if he would repent. But Oisin replied that he had seen the wonders of Tir Nan Og and the beauty of the Faerie queen and that was enough for him.

     Oisin asked if the Fenian Knights would be in Heaven.  Saint Patrick said no, they wouldn't be because the Fenians were not Christians.  Oisin insisted that he could not conceive of a heaven that would not be proud to receive the Fenians if they wished to enter.  However, if there would be no Fenians in Heaven he, Oisin, did not think he would like it much.  Besides, what would be the point of living forever if there would be no riotous good times hunting, no wenching beautiful and loving women? Oisin declared he would prefer to go to Hell where, according to St. Patrick, his Fenian brothers were.  And so, Oisin died, a Pagan, as he had lived.