RATTLEBOX

[DAK]

Thanks to all who replied, but we're obviously going to have
to try harder <!>.  ( The question is from a historian who also
writes a weekly nature column.)

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You're right! I can say pretty definitively that the reference
was not to a plant, especially not to an exotic species.
-----Original Message-----
From: buchmann at bellsouth.net
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 10:13 PM
Subject: Re: rattlebox / 2
I'M NOT CERTAIN ALL THIS
PLANT LIFE IS WHAT YOU
NEED. I'LL KEEP LOOKING.
-----Original Message-----
> Could you ask your language gurus about this word? It appears in very
> old deeds as a landmark ("to the rattlebox on the Tennessee River"). A
> man I talked with yesterday thought it might have been a box hung on a
> rope that would carry someone across the river. a technique later used
> by linemen.  I always envisioned a noise maker that might call the
> ferryman. But, we could both be wrong.