"Cowthump"

When a minister in Southbury, Conn, married for the third time, his neighbors recalled that "we got a pretty good cowthump out of that." Throughout New England the noisy bridal serenade is a nourishing practice, going by such names as horning, shivaree, skimmelton, skimmington, warming, housewarming, sendoff, rouser, jamboree, waking-up, bellin', tin pan shower, callithumpian, callathumpin'. callathump and cowthump. The serenade includes such noisemakers as tin pans, kettles, washboilers, dinner bells, cowbells horns, gongs, drums, saws, tin cans, shotguns, "horse fiddles" (two rails gratin.tr together), "devil's fiddles" (a plank run through a box), "skonk" (conch) shells and corn-shellers filled with small stones The bride & groom are expected to listen patiently for a bit, then give the cothumpers plenty of cigars, applejack, gin whiskey or beer. If they do not, or if they are definitely disliked by the cowthumpers. the noise goes on. If the couple decline to show themselves, the crowd may cover their chimney and smoke them out.

This loamy American was reported in the current 'American Speech, linguistic quarterly, by Harvard Professor Miles

Lawrence Hanley who is one of a band of scholars roaming the rural U. S. to note and map its regional dialects before they become obsolete. In about ten years the U. S. will have a complete Linguistic Atlas. Workers are still occupied with New England, where the Atlas was begun two years ago (TIME, Aug. 31, 1931). Professor Hanley got his cowthumpiana by personal interview, from 262 sources. Naturally cowthumping is more prevalent in rural districts than in urban centres. Yet sophisticated residents of Danbury, Conn. might be surprised to hear that a Danbury woman said: "They started to have one for us, but my husband went out and sent them off to the saloon." In Newport, N. H.: "I went to one or two when I was a kid. Now they rice 'em up and confetti 'em up." In Hartland, Conn.: " 'Member when we serenaded. Drinked up three gallon of gin."

The Linguistic Atlas was planned in 1925 by Austrian-born Dr. Hans Kurath, 41, onetime German teacher at Texas. Northwestern and Ohio State Universities. The American Council of Learned Societies began financing it in 1931; Yale University was its first home but Brown University offered more spacious quarters. Dr. Kurath is now chairman of Brown's Germanic languages department. The Linguistic Atlas began expediting its work last autumn with a new, cheap recording instrument which makes aluminum discs playable on any phonograph. A pioneer recorder, not actively connected with the Atlas, is Barnard's Professor William Cabell Greet. He has recorded Maine farmers, Blue Ridge mountaineers, Barnard girls, Herbert Hoover, Alfred E. Smith, Nicholas Murray Butler, the late Poet Vachel Lindsay, the London Naval Conference and the late Calvin Coolidge ("perfect Connecticut Valley").

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