An excerpt from Suwannee River, Strange Green Land by Cecile Hulse Matschat, 1938.
“In the evening, or after a warm rain, the frog orchestra turns out in full force. Each species has its own peculiar song and pitch; and much of the really primitive folk music of Okefenokee is borrowed from its frogs and toads. The swampers call the frog music the Song of the Okefenokee and imitate it in their signal calls, and in the songs without words that they sing in long hours of poling down the runs.”
Cecile Matschat’s work, published in 1938 by the Literary Guild of America, is full of colorful stories of the Swampers that lived in the Okefenokee, exciting folklore encounters with bear, boar and cannibal alligators, as well as scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the great swamp. It a worthwhile purchase if you come across a used copy of this collectible out-of-print treasure of Okefenokee literature.
- iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21747182
- Matschat, Cecile Hulse, and Key Alexander. Suwannee River: Strange Green Land. The Literary Guild of America, Inc., 1938.
Okefenokee Photography Project by William Wise 