Skip to content

Callin’ the Dog

A Mississippi Tall Tale

Tall talkin’ in Mississippi has been termed "Callin’ the dog" ever since that famous tall-tale session when one man offered a hound dog pup to the person who could tell the biggest lie. Well, those stories started rollin’ in, each one bigger and harder to believe than the one before.

Now, the last man to talk knew he didn’t have a chance of winnin’ that there pup on account of all them tall-tales the others told was so good. So he jest said: "I never told a lie in my life."

"You get the pup!" said the owner of the hound dog. And everyone else agreed with him.

 

You can read more Mississippi folktales in Spooky South by .

 

 

Tags:

Related Posts

Rising of Gouverneur Morris

The Rising of Gouverneur Morris

Gouverneur Morris, American minister to the court of Louis XVI, was considerably enriched, at the close of the reign of terror, by plate, jewels, furniture, paintings, coaches, and so on, left in his charge by members of the French nobility, that they might not be confiscated in the sack of the city.

Ghost of Sunrise Rock

The Ghost of Sunrise Rock

Some years before the outbreak of the Civil War, a man with his wife and daughter took up their residence in a log cabin at the foot of Sunrise Rock, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. It seemed probable that they had known better days, for the head of the household was believed to get his living through “writin’ or book-larnin’,” but was fairly useless at hunting and farming.

Strangers

Strangers

Wallen’s Ridge, a rough eminence about a dozen miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was once an abiding place of Cherokee Indians, among whom lived Arinook, their medicine-man, and his daughter. The girl was pure and fair, and when a passing hunter from another tribe saw her one day at the door of her father’s home he was so struck with her charm of person and her engaging manner that he resolved not to return to his people until he had won her for his wife.