The Mud Chimney

There is a legend in Cajun Country about the crawfish mud chimney. When the Acadiens were expelled from Acadie and traveled south to find home and refuge, the lobsters they fished followed them. Those big lobsters got tired and hungry on the voyage and shrank in size till they were about four inches long. When the Acadiens settled in Louisiana and became Cajuns, those lobsters set up homes and became known as crawfish. Those crawfish tried to emulate the Cajuns, and when the people built their homes and their mud chimneys, the crawfish built chimneys, but got tired, crawled into the little chimney and slept.

Today, walking the dog, I spotted a crawfish chimney in the ditch in my yard. Because I've got a lot of Cajun in me, I saluted the little mud chimney and left it alone. Some poor crawfish has taken residence in my ditch and that's okay with me. I'll leave him alone as long as he wants to stay.

That's a crawfish mud chimney, in the grass of my ditch. It's about five inches tall and tells me that a crawfish has buried bimself in the mud. It's probably part of his life cycle, and I'm sure I could Google the science, but the legend is good enough for me.

One more picture, from another perspective.

Ain't that something?