Catfishin'

DuBose Heyward

Downtown's Spoleto Festival begins next week, an annual celebration of the performing arts that continues Charleston's place in the national arts. An early landmark of the city's arts prominence rose nearly a century ago with ""Porgy and Bess" and its ties to one of Charleston's leading artistic couples of the early 20th century, Dorothy and DuBose Heyward. The couple were A-list names in their day, well before writing the libretto for George Gershwin's adaptation of the Heywards' novel and play "Porgy."

DuBose Heyward came from an old Charleston family that traced its ancestry in the city to well before the American Revolution. Unusual for an aristocrat at the pinnacle of Charleston's elite white society of the time, Heyward pursued a lifelong interest in African-American Gullah culture, and incorporated Gullah dialect and traditions into his 1925 novel of life in Charleston's black slums, "Porgy". It was drawn from a newspaper article about Samuel Smalls, a paraplegic black man who made his way around Cabbage Row (part of present-day Church Street) in a cart drawn by a goat.

"Catfish Row", c. 1930 (courtesy College of Charleston)

Dorothy - a playwright and novelist whom Heyward had met during a writing workshop in New Hampshire and married in 1923 - adapted the novel into a play of the same name, which opened on Broadway in 1927 featuring at the Heywards' insistence an all-black cast, highly unusual at a time when most black stage characters were still being played by white actors in blackface.

George and Ira Gershwin with DuBose Heyward (center)

The play formed the libretto for the Gershwin jazz and blues-inflected opera cast with classically-trained black singers, which met with much controversy when it premiered in Boston in 1935 but has since become one of the most widely-produced American works in the operatic canon.

Made For The Marsh

Silky, our own Carolina Marsh Tacky

Horses have been present on Seabrook Island for generations, none more highly prized than the Carolina Marsh Tacky, now the official Heritage Horse of South Carolina and deeply entwined with Lowcountry history. We're fortunate to have two members of this rare breed as part of the herd at the Equestrian Center, like the mare Silky, a favorite mount for beach and trail rides on the island.

The ancestors of today's Marsh Tackies first arrived on the Carolina coast with Spanish conquistadors in the 17th century. Left behind when Spanish colonizing efforts failed to gain a foothold against competition from British and French rivals , the feral herd adapted to the rigors of the Lowcountry climate to evolve into today's Marsh Tackies, with thick manes, tails and skin for protection against insects, snake bites and dense underbrush. More importantly, the breed developed extraordinarily strong hooves, so strong that today's Tackies don't require shoes, an especially important advantage when striding through pluff mud. Tackies have even developed a unique behavior to free themselves if they become stuck in the mud: where most other horses would react frantically and work themselves deeper, Tackies will calmly lay on their sides and edge themselves out of trouble.

Francis Marion and his trusted Marsh Tacky

This unique breed was favored in Revolutionary War times by Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox", who was able to negotiate such treacherous terrain thanks to these physical traits and the breed's much-prized calm, steady temperament and comfortable gait. Confederate troops were often able to out-maneuver mounted Union forces for the same reason during the Civil War.

Two "sand pounders" on patrol during WWII

Even into modern times, the Marsh Tacky was used to patrol the coastline for German submarines during World War Two as part of mounted "Sand Pounder" volunteer patrols.

Bloodlines are now carefully registered and monitored by the Carolina Marsh Tacky Association, thanks to a DNA registry developed by the Livestock Conservancy. Look for Silky, with her dark mane and buckskin-like coat, the next time you drive by the Equestrian Center.

Looking For Love

The little guy above may be barely two inches across, but fiddler crabs like this mate-seeking male are an important if little noticed part of our island ecosystem. This one is a mud fiddler (Uca pugnax) who lives in the creekside mud banks at Seabrook's crabbing dock, waving his immense left claw to attract a female to his burrow. If one approaches, he'll also drum his claw or stamp his legs on the ground to keep her interested. Mating occurs inside the burrow, after which the female emerges in about two weeks to release her eggs into the water.

Fiddler crabs are one of the most common and, if you look for them, most conspicuous inhabitants of the Lowcountry's tidal inlets and intertidal zones. (Two other common types along the Atlantic seaboard are the sand fiddler and the red-jointed fiddler.) They're especially abundant at this time of year, the spring mating season. You'll see them foraging in large groups, emerging between high tides to feed from burrows that can be nearly two-feet in depth.

courtesy NOAA

The male's claw at maturity can account for 65% of its total body weight; and if he loses it in a fight with rival male, another will grow on the opposite side at the next molt and a normal-sized one will replace the lost claw. That smaller claw is used to sift mud and sand for algae, fungus and other organic matter transported to the mouth, the back-and-forth motion as if the animal's playing the fiddle of its larger claw. Once the food's been extracted, the crab will roll the remaining sediment into a ball and leave it at the mouth of its burrow to be carried away in the next high tide.

Because they're constantly sifting soil, fiddlers are considered important for aerating the ground and helping to maintain healthy soil conditions. And they're an important protein source for birds like herons and egrets, mammals such as raccoons and foxes, and even other, larger crabs like blue crabs. Keep an eye out for these diminutive but crucial inhabitants as you enjoy the creeks and tidal inlets of Seabrook, and give them a wave back!