Old folk religions between the deep south and even more so, the mountainous regions is often truly amazing......that was the first region in which I'd ever heard of "sin eaters", long before the recent movie, and likewise an area in which folk tunes were often preserved almost intact directly from old Celtic songs, and verbally/musically, as many of the people were illiterate.
The lyrari/Neraidas goes all the way back to ancient Greece and before, while the blues analogy reared into popular culture a few years back with the song "The Devil Goes Down To Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels band.
Old Celtic folk tales are truly amazing, with so many, such as silkies/selkies, old Meg and such rooted thousands of years in the past.
Don't forget, the ancient Greeks were the original world travellers, as far as is known, and had direct contact with parts of Africa, Turkey (Troy) and others, to the point that even some of the old testament bible information from 2,000 years ago is directly attributable to them for its origins.
When this thread caught fire, the world wide membership responded in a fashion that shows how much the family of man actually is exactly just that much more so than any I can think of in a long while.
Mike
|