Uncle Muddy took us camping down to our pond Saturday night. He takes me and Shady down there, and builds a big fire and sets us up three little tents, just like the ones in the military. He says we have to learn how to do stuff like this, if the lights ever go out for good. He generally brings a six pack for him, and brings us food to cook over the campfire. He tells us scary stories sometimes; and this one was a humdinger! I will let him tell it.

Uncle Muddy: Boys after we stoke up the fire, I have a story for you, a real scary story. You might not want to hear it, but if you do I will tell it. (We let him know we wanted to hear it, and he started telling us about the Hollow Men).

Boys have you ever heard the legend of the Hollow Men? You see, back in the Civil War, there was two brothers, both on opposite sides in the war. One was Union, one was Confederate and they met up on the battlefield just outside of Vicksburg. They both sat down at a field table, and decided to talk and have a drink together, even though they were sworn enemies at the time.

Well, they commenced to drinking that whole bottle of rum, and started arguing with one another. One thing led to another, and one brother pushed the other one into their fire, which made him have to put out his coat and pretty much ruined his uniform. So that brother, the one that got burned, took out his dueling pistols, and said, “Brother, we have to duel, since you have dishonored me, and my uniform.”

They both paced 15 paces, and it was getting close to morning light so they could see. They turned at 15 paces like you s’posed to in a gun duel for honor, and both brothers shot one another. They both were still alive, even though each one just shot the other one, and still so mad they tried to go back at it. Bleeding everywhere, one brother took out his sword and cut his other brother’s head off, then he fell dead too, right on top of his brother.

So what is the legend? The first one with his head cut off roams the countryside looking for his head, and sucking out souls, since when he got his head cut off his soul escaped. If you run across him, you will know it because all he whispers is, “Have you seen my brother?” His head just sits there with a big bloody patch on his neck, and when he loses it he has to pick it back up and stick it on.

When he asks in that whisper, “Have you seen my brother?” the next time you look in the mirror you will see a wool burn around your neck, and you will go crazy if you can’t find his brother, or his BROTHER’s head. (By then we were getting a little spooked).

The other brother, the one being looked for got HIS head cut off, but that happened because he came back to LIFE, when an old witch woman, named Mother Lazeria or something like that, carried his body to a roadside tavern, that’s what juke joints used to be called and managed to revive him with a spell. She wanted his blood for her magic, but he didn’t know that. She needed fresh blood for her evil conjuring.

She brought him back to life just long enough to tell her the whole story, so she got him a bottle of rum and asked him to lay his head on the table. He was drunk, after all he just came back to life, and she took a razor and CUT his head SLAM OFF with it. She put his head in a glass demijohn, that’s a five gallon jar like a pickle jar but with wine in it. She then took it to the back shelf of the bar, put a ring of salt around it and left it there. She drained his body of every bit of blood and disappeared.

The barkeeper never let that salt ring disappear, and never tried to move that jar and folks swears its still there. They say that the barkeep tells folks that head talks to him sometimes. Once, some college kids from Oxford came to the bar, and they heard about the jar with the Hollow Man’s head in it. They wanted to be smart aleck, so they removed the salt ring a little, and ended up bad hurt, in the hospital with rope burns around their neck. The bartender said the bar caught fire once, and he didn’t replace the burnt wood under the jar on the shelf, he built AROUND it so as not to disturb the head.

Every time he stares into the jar he said, the head mouths the words, “Tell my brother I am sorry.” Sometimes during a full moon, or when something bad is going on, you can see one of the brothers carrying a head. And if its on Halloween or you are near a graveyard, you can see BOTH of them together. Sometimes they are carrying their head, sometimes they have their heads on. And you can smell gunpowder and wood smoke really strong.

I was kind of feeling spooked, and Shady was so afraid he went and hid in his tent. Needless to say we didn’t sleep a wink that night. Don’t let the Hollow Men ask you nothing, no sir. If they see you that is.