Recently, I heard a song on country radio with a lyric that went "…she don't need a phone/She'll just holler down the mountain…" or something like that. This reminded me of a time when I was sitting in the Oakland Coliseum, waiting for a concert to begin.
A woman rose from her seat, put one hand to the side of her mouth, and gave a tremendous "hoot" that resounded around the arena. Now this is a big place, 60,000+ seats, and I was amazed to hear a sound so loud and vibrant come from an unamplified human throat.
I asked someone about this and was told "yes, that's hog-calling, or hollering. It's how they used to communicate in the Appalachians before there were telephones." I also seem to remember something about there being, to this day, competitions in this "sport".
Does anyone here know about this? Maybe Paw and Cletus could enlighten us, or perhaps the Wes Ginny contingent? Can you really call a hog, and what will the hog do when called?