I tend to research folklore rather sporadically and in bursts. Sometimes during my research I come across something so incredibly interesting but too brief to write a full paper about. This is one of those cases but I still thought it needed to be shared with the world and was a perfect fit for my blog.
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| Easter Harvestman (L. vitattum) |
This tale comes from a person by the name of Avery Gaskins from Big Isaac in Doddridge County, West Virginia. It was 1939 and Avery was spending the weekend with the Claude Davis family on a farm. The children slept in a loft in the farmhouse together used kerosene lamps to light up the loft. The first night Avery stayed there, they saw, according to Avery 'a spider-like insect the other children told me was a grand-daddy long legs' (Gaskins, 1968). The other children then told Avery that if they 'slapped the wall hard next to the insect and asked "Where is my true love?" that it would lift its right front leg and point towards the direction of her house' (Gaskins, 1968). The other boys there insisted that they had found their girlfriends through the help of the grand-daddy long legs and according to Askins, the grand-daddy long legs did indeed lift its leg and point from the vibration of the slap against the wall.
The insect in question is the Eastern Harvestman (Leiobunum vitattum), a harmless arachnid (though not a spider!) native to areas like West Virginia. I personally grew up calling them 'grand daddy long legs' and did not call them anything else until I was much older and learned the scientific taxonomy.
Dalton L. Miller
September 29th, 2021
REFERENCES
Gaskins, A. F. (1968). A West Virginia Folk Ritual. The Journal of American Folklore, 81(320), 159–159. https://doi.org/10.2307/537665
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