To the negroes it seemed that the very skies were dropping down upon them every feathered creature God had ever made. They saw fowls of the air that they did not know existed under the heavens, and they heard bird-voices expressing fright which possibly had never been heard by human beings before.
Somewhere outside of their range of vision the airplane was still moving, for they could hear the exhaust like a steady purr in the distance. Everywhere that the machine went it caused the same excitement among the birds, so that a great multitude of these winged creatures were in terrified flight.
The terror laid hold upon the animals in the swamp, for there suddenly rose in a mighty chorus the scream of the panther and the wailing bark of the wolf and the angry, frightened roar of the bear. All the animals in the vicinity of the Little Moccasin prairie very naturally ran toward that open space; if rapid flight was necessary, any land animal could travel faster where there were no vines or stumps or trees or marshy places to hinder flight.
A drove of wild hogs, numbering several hundred, traveling with the speed and noise of an express train, and, like the exhaust of an automobile, uttering at every jump their frightened exclamation: “Whoof, whoof, whoof!” swept across that prairie, and every negro flattened himself upon the ground where he was lying and bawled aloud his supplication to the Almighty: “Dat He wouldn’t let no wild hawg step on him!” The drove of hogs passed without damage.
Then three young deer came galloping across the field, leaping over those prostrated bodies and dancing among the men, women, and children like so many pet rabbits. Behind them two panthers slung across the open space, spitting venomously at something they thought they had left in the woods.
After that something arrived upon the scene which brought every negro to his feet. Four black bears came out of the woods and lumbered over and joined the terrified negroes. The black bear of Louisiana is small and harmless. But to a negro he always looks extremely large and very ferocious. The other wild animals that had crossed the prairie seemed to have a destination, and they went on across.
When the black bears came they seemed to have arrived at the place they were going and appeared to be delighted at finding five or six hundred black folks at the same place to receive them and protect them. But the negroes sprang upon their feet with five or six hundred assorted yells of terror, and were getting ready to scatter out into the woods when a sound above their heads caused them to look up, and lo! the airplane had returned and was now three thousand feet above them.