University of Virginia Library

Before and during the war, and perhaps afterwards, the negroes on the Southern plantations had in use a complete system of intercommunication by means of which all kinds of intelligence could be transmitted from point to point with amazing rapidity. When Sherman swung loose from Atlanta for his march across Georgia, the fact became known to all the negroes on a plantation in middle Georgia—and to one white person—within the course of twelve hours. In India, where the same system prevails, the results have been attributed to occult influences. It prevails also among the African tribes, and was introduced on the Southern plantations (as far as I can learn) by a negro named Qua, who died in Augusta, Ga., in the thirties at an extreme old age. Qua had a grandson who was nearly grown in 1800. The African name of this grandson was M'Bulu, pronounced M'Booloo, which was corrupted into Baylor. The system of intercommunication was known among the older negroes as M'Bulu Irruwandu—literally, Baylor's waist-cloth, or breech clout—the means by which a signal, or a series of signals, is given in Africa. But it may be made to mean the song, the holla, or any other method by means of which intelligence is transmitted. This information is as scanty as it is unimportant, but such as it is, it is the result of an investigation covering forty years.