Medleys of this character seem to have been a popular form of
entertainment and may still be common, though the examples I have were
given me in every case by old men. They are composed of scraps of song
or whole scenes from well-known Nansi stories, together with
game-songs, imitations of animal sounds, and “rhyming,” strung together
much like our own musical medleys—the last line of one suggesting the
first of the next. In this example, story-songs from numbers 97 and 86
are followed by a game dialogue; next by some animal imitations; last,
by a specimen of Jamaica “rhyming.” Other examples of this kind of
improvised “rhyming” are:
“Mr. Might, jump up a height, after a kite,
And knock his eye, upon his hog-sty, and cry out ‘hi!
oh, my! why should I die’.”
“There is a boat, and in the boat, is a goat, and has
a long coat, catch him under the throat.”