The Jayhawk

The legend of the Jayhawk States that: “Early one autumn morning in 1856, Pat Devilin, a Free-State Irishman, rode into Osawatomie with his saddle bags laden with considerable goods. As he tied his horse in front of one of the stores, one of the men standing nearby said, ‘Pat, it, looks like you have been foraging.’ Pat, as he mounted the steps replied,’Yes, I have been over in Missouri jayhawking.’ When asked what he meant by the expression he said that in the old country they had a bird that worried its prey before devouring it. He added that what he had been doing was jayhawking. This is the only known origin of the word.”