Part II

A STUDY IN NEGRO FOLK RHYMES

The lore of the American Negro is rich in story, in song, and in Folk

rhymes. These stories and songs have been partially recorded, but so far

as I know there is no collection of the American Negro Folk Rhymes. The

collection in Part I is a compilation of American Negro Folk Rhymes, and

this study primarily concerns them; but it was necessary to have a

Foreign Section of Rhymes in order to make our study complete. I have

therefore inserted a little Foreign Section of African, Venezuelan,

Jamaican, Trinidad, and Philippine Negro Rhymes; and along with them

have placed the names of the contributors to whom we are under great

obligations, as well as to the many others who have given valuable

assistance and suggestions in the matter of the American Negro Rhymes

recorded.

When critically measured by the laws and usages governing the best

English poetry, Negro Folk Rhymes will probably remind readers of the

story of the good brother, who arose solemnly in a Christian praise

meeting, and thanked God that he had broken all the Commandments, but

had kept his religion.

Though decent rhyme is often wanting, and in the case of the "Song to

the Runaway Slave," there is no rhyme at all, the rhythm is found almost

perfect in all of them.

A few of the Rhymes bear the mark of a somewhat recent date in

composition. The majority of them, however, were sung by Negro fathers

and mothers in the dark days of American slavery to their children who

listened with eyes as large as saucers and drank them down with mouths

wide open. The little songs were similar in structure to the Jubilee

Songs, also of Negro Folk origin.

If one will but examine the recorded Jubilee songs, he will find that it

is common for stanzas, which are apparently most distantly related in

structure, to sing along in perfect rhythm in the same tune that

carefully counts from measure to measure one, two; or one, two, three,

four. Here is an example of two stanzas taken from the Jubilee song,

"Wasn't That a Wide River?"

1. "Old Satan's just like a snake in the grass,

He's a-watching for to bite you as you pass.

2. Shout! Shout! Satan's about.

Just shut your door, and keep him out."

An examination of stanzas in various Jubilee songs will show in the same

song large variations in poetic feet, etc., not only from stanza to

stanza; but very often from line to line, and even from phrase to

phrase. Notwithstanding all this variation, a well trained band of

singers will render the songs with such perfect rhythm that one scarcely

realizes that the structure of any one stanza differs materially from

that of another.

A stanza, as it appears in Negro Folk Rhymes, is of the same

construction as that found in the Jubilee Songs. A perfect rhythm is

there. If while reading them you miss it, read yet once again; you will

find it in due season if you "faint not" too early.

As a rule, Negro Folk verse is so written that it fits into measures of

music written 4/4 or 2/4 time. You can therefore read Negro Folk Rhymes

silently counting: one, two; or, one, two, three, four; and the stanzas

fit directly into the imaginary music measures if you are reading in

harmony with the intended rhythm. I know of only three Jubilee Songs

whose stanzas are transcribed as exceptions. They are--

(1) "I'm Going to Live with Jesus," 6/8 time, (2) "Gabriel's Trumpet's

Going to Blow," 3/4 time, and (3) "Lord Make Me More Patient," 6/8

time. It is interesting to note along with these that the "Song of the

Great Owl," the "Negro Soldier's Civil War Chant," and "Destitute Former

Slave Owners," are seemingly the only ones in our Folk Rhyme collection

which would call for a 3/4 or 6/8 measure. Such a measure is rare in all

literary Negro Folk productions.

The Negro, then, repeated or sang his Folk Rhymes, and danced them to

4/4 and 2/4 measures. Thus Negro Folk Rhymes, with very few exceptions,

are poetry where a music measure is the unit of measurement for the

words rather than the poetic foot. This is true whether the Rhyme is, or

is not, sung. _Imaginary measures either of two or four beats, with a

given number of words to a beat, a number that can be varied limitedly

at will, seems to be the philosophy underlying all Negro slave rhyme

construction._

As has just been casually mentioned, the Negro Folk Rhyme was used for

the dance. There are Negro Folk Rhyme Dance Songs and Negro Folk Dance

Rhymes. An example of the former is found in "The Banjo Picking," and of

the latter, "Juba," both found in this collection. The reader may wonder

how a Rhyme simply repeated was used in the dance. The procedure was as

follows: Usually one or two individuals "star" danced at time. The

others of the crowd (which was usually large) formed a circle about this

one or two who were to take their prominent turn at dancing. I use the

terms "star" danced and "prominent turn" because in the latter part of

our study we shall find that all those present engaged sometimes at

intervals in the dance. But those forming the circle, for most of the

time, repeated the Rhyme, clapping their hands together, and patting

their feet in rhythmic time with the words of the Rhyme being repeated.

It was the task of the dancers in the middle of the circle to execute

some graceful dance in such a manner that their feet would beat a tattoo

upon the ground answering to every word, and sometimes to every syllable

of the Rhyme being repeated by those in the circle. There were many such

Rhymes. "'Possum Up the Gum Stump," and "Jawbone" are good examples. The

stanzas to these Rhymes were not usually limited to two or three, as is

generally the case with those recorded in our collection. Each selection

usually had many stanzas. Thus as there came variation in the words from

stanza to stanza, the skill of the dancers was taxed to its utmost, in

order to keep up the graceful dance and to beat a changed tattoo upon

the ground corresponding to the changed words. If any find fault with

the limited number of stanzas recorded in our treatise, I can in apology

only sing the words of a certain little encore song each of whose two

little stanzas ends with the words, "Please don't call us back, because

we don't know any more."

There is a variety of Dance Rhyme to which it is fitting to call

attention. This variety is illustrated in our collection by "Jump Jim

Crow," and "Juba." In such dances as these, the dancers were required to

give such movements of body as would act the sentiment expressed by the

words while keeping up the common requirements of beating these same

words in a tattoo upon the ground with the feet and executing

simultaneously a graceful dance.

It is of interest also to note that the antebellum Negro while repeating

his Rhymes which had no connection with the dance usually accompanied

the repeating with the patting of his foot upon the ground. Among other

things he was counting off the invisible measures and bars of his

Rhymes, things largely unseen by the world but very real to him. Every

one who has listened to a well sung Negro Jubilee Song knows that it is

almost impossible to hear one sung and not pat the foot. I have seen the

feet of the coldest blooded Caucasians pat right along while Jubilee

melodies were being sung.

All Negro Folk productions, including the Negro Folk Rhymes, seem to

call for this patting of the foot. The explanation which follows is

offered for consideration. The orchestras of the Native African were

made up largely of crudely constructed drums of one sort or another.

Their war songs and so forth were sung to the accompaniment of these

drum orchestras. When the Negroes were transported to America, and began

to sing songs and to chant words in another tongue, they still sang

strains calling, through inheritance, for the accompaniment of their

ancestral drum. The Negro's drum having fallen from him as he entered

civilization, he unwittingly called into service his foot to take its

place. This substitution finds a parallelism in the highly cultivated La

France rose, which being without stamens and pistils must be propagated

by cuttings or graftings instead of by seeds. The rose, purposeless,

emits its sweet perfume to the breezes and thus it attracts insects for

cross fertilization simply because its staminate and pistillate

ancestors thus called the insect world for that purpose. The rattle of

the crude drum of the Native African was loud by inheritance in the

hearts of his early American descendants and its unseen ghost walks in

the midst of all their poetry.

Many Negro Folk Rhymes were used as banjo and fiddle (violin) songs. It

ought to be borne in mind, however, that even these were quite often

repeated without singing or playing. It was common in the early days of

the public schools of the South to hear Negro children use them as

declamations. The connection, however, of Negro Folk Rhymes with their

secular music productions is well worthy of notice.

I have often heard those who liked to think and discuss things musical,

wonder why little or no music of a secular kind worth while seemed to be

found among Negroes while their religious music, the Jubilee Songs, have

challenged the admiration of the world. The songs of most native peoples

seem to strike "high water mark" in the secular form. Probably numbers

of us have heard the explanation: "You see, the Negro is deeply

emotional; religion appealed to him as did nothing else. The Negro

therefore spent his time singing and shouting praises to God, who alone

could whisper in his heart and stir up these emotions." There is perhaps

much truth in this explanation. It is also such a delicate and high

compliment to the Negro race, that I hesitate to touch it. One of the

very few gratifying things that has come to Negroes is the unreserved

recognition of their highly religious character. There is a truth,

however, about the relation between the Negro Folk Rhyme and the Negro's

banjo and fiddle music which ought to be told even though some older,

nicer viewpoints might be a little shifted.

There were quite a few Rhymes sung where the banjo and fiddle formed

what is termed in music a simple accompaniment. Examples of these are

found in "Run, Nigger, Run," and "I'll Wear Me a Cotton Dress." In such

cases the music consisted of simple short tunes unquestionably "born to

die."

There was another class of Rhymes like "Devilish Pigs," that were used

with the banjo and fiddle in quite another way. It was the banjo and

fiddle productions of this kind of Rhyme that made the "old time" Negro

banjo picker and fiddler famous. It has caused quite a few, who heard

them, to declare that, saint or sinner, it was impossible to keep your

feet still while they played. The compositions were comparatively long.

From one to four lines of a Negro Folk Rhyme were sung to the opening

measures of the instrumental composition; then followed the larger and

remaining part of the composition, instruments alone. In the Rhyme

"Devilish Pigs" four lines were used at a time. Each time that the music

theme of the composition was repeated, another set of Rhyme lines was

repeated; and the variations in the music theme were played in each

repeat which recalled the newly repeated words of the Rhyme. The ideal

in composition from an instrumental viewpoint might quite well remind

one of the ideal in piano compositions, which consists of a theme with

variations. The first movement of Beethoven's Sonata, Opus 26,

illustrates the music ideal in composition to which I refer.

So far as I know no Caucasian instrumental music composer has ever

ordered the performers under his direction to sing a few of the first

measures of his composition while the string division of the orchestra

played its opening chords. Only the ignorant Negro composer has done

this. Some white composers have made little approaches to it. A fair

sample of an approach is found in the Idylls of Edward McDowell, for

piano, where every exquisite little tone picture is headed by some gem

in verse, reading which the less musically gifted may gain a deeper

insight into the philosophical tone discourse set forth in the notes and

chords of the composition.

The Negro Folk Rhyme, then, furnished the ideas about which the "old

time" Negro banjo picker and fiddler clustered his best instrumental

music thoughts. It is too bad that this music passed away unrecorded

save by the hearts of men. Paul Laurence Dunbar depicts its telling

effects upon the hearer in his poem "The Party":

"Cripple Joe, de ole rheumatic, danced dat flo' frum side to middle.

Throwed away his crutch an' hopped it, what's rheumatics 'gainst a

fiddle?

Eldah Thompson got so tickled dat he lak to los' his grace,

Had to take bofe feet an' hold 'em, so's to keep 'em in deir place.

An' de Christuns an' de sinnahs got so mixed up on dat flo',

Dat I don't see how dey's pahted ef de trump had chonced to blow."

Perhaps a new school of orchestral music might be built on the Negro

idea that some of the performers sing a sentence or so here and there,

both to assist the hearers to a clearer musical understanding and to

heighten the general artistic finish. The old Negro performers generally

sang lines of the Folk Rhymes at the opening but occasionally in the

midst of their instrumental compositions. I do not recall any case where

lines were sung to the closing measures of the compositions.

It might seem odd to some that the grotesque Folk Rhyme should have

given rise to comparatively long instrumental music compositions. I

think the explanation is probably very simple. The African on his native

heath had his crude ancestral drum as his leading musical instrument. He

sang or shouted his war songs consisting of a few words, and of a few

notes, then followed them up with the beating of his drum, perhaps for

many minutes, or even for hours. In civilization, the banjo, fiddle,

"quills," and "triangle" largely took the place of his drum. Thus the

singing of opening strains and following them with the main body of the

instrumental composition, is in keeping with the Negro's inherited law

for instrumental compositions from his days of savagery. The rattling,

distinct tones of the banjo, recalling unconsciously his inherited love

for the rattle of the African ancestral drum, is probably the thing

which caused that instrument to become a favorite among Negro slaves.

I would next consider the relation of the Folk Rhymes to Negro child

life. They were instilled into children as warnings. In the years

closely following our Civil War, it was common for a young Negro child,

about to engage in a doubtful venture, to hear his mother call out to

him the Negro Rhyme recorded by Joel Chandler Harris, in the Negro

story, "The End of Mr. Bear":

"Tree stan' high, but honey mighty sweet--

Watch dem bees wid stingers on der feet."

These lines commonly served to recall the whole story, it being the

Rabbit's song in that story, and the child stopped whatever he was

doing. Other and better examples of such Rhymes are "Young Master and

Old Master," "The Alabama Way," and "You Had Better Mind Master," found

in our collection.

The warnings were commonly such as would help the slave to escape more

successfully the lash, and to live more comfortably under slave

conditions. I would not for once intimate that I entertain the thought

that the ignorant slave carefully and philosophically studied his

surroundings, reasoned it to be a fine method to warn children through

poetry, composed verse, and like a wise man proceeded to use it. Of

course thinking preceded the making of the Rhyme, but a conscious system

of making verses for the purpose did not exist. I have often watched

with interest a chicken hen lead forth her brood of young for the first

time. While the scratching and feeding are going on, all of a sudden the

hen utters a loud shriek, and flaps her wings. The little chicks,

although they have never seen a hawk, scurry hither and thither, and so

prostrate their little brown and ashen bodies upon the ground as almost

to conceal themselves. The Negro Folk Rhymes of warning must be looked

upon a little in this same light. They are but the strains of terror

given by the promptings of a mother instinct full enough of love to give

up life itself for its defenseless own.

Many Rhymes were used to convey to children the common sense truths of

life, hidden beneath their comic, crudely cut coats. Good examples are

"Old Man Know-All," "Learn to Count," and "Shake the Persimmons Down."

All through the Rhymes will be found here and there many stanzas full of

common uncommon sense, worthwhile for children.

Many Negro Folk Rhymes repeated or sung to children on their parents'

knees were enlarged and told to them as stories, when they became older.

The Rhyme in our collection on "Judge Buzzard" is one of this kind. In

the Negro version of the race between the hare and the tortoise

("rabbit and terrapin"), the tortoise wins not through the hare's going

to sleep, but through a gross deception of all concerned, including even

the buzzard who acted as Judge. The Rhyme is a laugh on "Jedge Buzzard."

It was commonly repeated to Negro children in olden days when they

passed erroneous judgments. "Buckeyed rabbit! Whoopee!" in our volume

belongs with the Negro story recorded by Joel Chandler Harris under the

title, "How Mr. Rabbit Lost His Fine Bushy Tail," though for some reason

Mr. Harris failed to weave it into the story as was the Negro custom.

"The Turtle's Song," in our collection, is another, which belongs with

the story, "Mr. Terrapin Shows His Strength"; a Negro story given to the

world by the same author, though the Rhyme was not recorded by him. It

might be of interest to know that the Negroes, when themselves telling

the Folk stories, usually sang the Folk Rhyme portions to little

"catchy" Negro tunes. I would not under any circumstances intimate that

Mr. Harris carelessly left them out. He recorded many little stanzas in

the midst of the stories. Examples are:

(a) "We'll stay at home when you're away

'Cause no gold won't pay toll."

(b) "Big bird catch, little bird sing.

Bug bee zoom, little bee sting.

Little man lead, and the big horse follow,

Can you tell what's good for a head in a hollow?"

These and many others are fragmentarily recorded among Mr. Harris' Negro

stories in "Nights With Uncle Remus."

Folk Rhymes also formed in many cases the words of Negro Play Songs.

"Susie Girl," and "Peep Squirrel," found in our collection, are good

illustrations of the Rhymes used in this way. The words and the music of

such Rhymes were usually of poor quality. When, however, they were sung

by children with the proper accompanying body movements, they might

quite well remind one of the "Folk Dances" used in the present best

up-to-date Primary Schools. They were the little rays of sunshine in the

dark dreary monotonous lives of black slave children.

Possibly the thing which will impress the reader most in reading Negro

Folk Rhymes is their good-natured drollery and sparkling nonsense. I

believe this is very important. Many have recounted in our hearing, the

descriptions of "backwoods" Negro picnics. I have witnessed some of

them where the good-natured vender of lemonade and cakes cried out:

"Here's y[=o]' c[=o]l' ice lemonade,

It's made in de shade,

It's stirred wid a spade.

Come buy my c[=o]l' ice lemonade.

It's made in de shade

An' s[=o]l' in de sun.

Ef you hain't got no money,

You cain't git none.

One glass fer a nickel,

An' two fer a dime,

Ef you hain't got de chink,

You cain't git mine.

Come right dis way,

Fer it sh[=o]' will pay

To git candy fer de ladies

An' cakes fer de babies."

"Did these venders sell?" Well, all agree that they did. The same

principle applied, with much of the nonsense eliminated, will probably

make of the Negro a great merchant, as caste gives way enough to allow

him a common man's business chance. Of all the races of men, the Negro

alone has demonstrated his ability to come into contact with the white

man and neither move on nor be annihilated. I believe this is largely

due to his power to muster wit and humor on all occasions, and even to

laugh in the face of adversity. He refused during the days of slavery to

take the advice of Job's wife, and to "Curse God and die." He repeated

and sang his comic Folk Rhymes, danced, lived, and came out of the Night

of Bondage comparatively strong.

The compiler of the Rhymes was quite interested to find that as a rule

the country-reared Negro had a larger acquaintance with Folk Rhymes than

one brought up in the city. The human mind craves occasional recreation,

entertainment, and amusement. In cities where there is an almost

continuous passing along the crowded thoroughfares of much that

contributes to these ends, the slave Negro needed only to keep his eyes

open, his ears attentive, and laugh. He directed his life accordingly.

But, in the country districts there was only the monotony of quiet woods

and waving fields of cotton. The rural scenes, though beautiful in

themselves, refuse to amuse or entertain those who will not hold

communion with them. The country Negro longing for amusement communed in

his crude way, and Nature gave him Folk Rhymes for entertainment. Among

those found to be clearly of this kind may be mentioned "The Great Owl's

Song," "Tails," "Redhead Woodpecker," "The Snail's Reply," "Bob-white's

Song," "Chuck Will's Widow Song," and many others.

The Folk Rhymes were not often repeated as such or as whole compositions

by the "grown-ups" among Negroes apart from the Play and the Dance. If,

however, you had had an argument with an antebellum Negro, had gotten

the better of the argument, and he still felt confident that he was

right, you probably would have heard him close his side of the debate

with the words: "Well, 'Ole Man Know-All is Dead.'" This is only a short

prosaic version of his rhyme "Old Man Know-All," found in our

collection. Many of the characteristic sayings of "Uncle Remus" woven

into story by Joel Chandler Harris had their origin in these Folk

Rhymes. "Dem dat know too much sleep under de ash-hopper" (Uncle Remus)

clearly intimates to all who know about the old-fashioned ash-hopper

that such an individual lies. This saying is a part of another stanza of

"Old Man Know-All," but I cannot recall it from my dim memory of the

past, and others whom I have asked seem equally unable to do so, though

they have once known it.

As is the case with all things of Folk origin, there is usually more

than one version of each Negro Folk Rhyme. In many cases the exercising

of a choice between many versions was difficult. I can only express the

hope that my choices have been wise.

There are two American Negro Folk Rhymes in our collection: "Frog in a

Mill" and "Tree Frogs," which are oddities in "language." They are

rhymes of a rare type of Negro, which has long since disappeared. They

were called "Ebo" Negroes and "Guinea" Negroes. The so-called "Ebo"

Negro used the word "la" very largely for the word "the." This and some

other things have caused me to think that the "Ebo" Negro was probably

one who was first a slave among the French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and

was afterwards sold to an English-speaking owner. Thus his language was

a mixture of African, English, and one of these languages. The so-called

"Guinea" Negro was simply one who had not been long from Africa; his

language being a mixture of his African tongue and English. These rhymes

are to the ordinary Negro rhymes what "Jutta Cord la" in "Nights with

Uncle Remus," by Joel Chandler Harris, is to the ordinary Negro stories

found there. They are probably representative, in language, of the most

primitive Negro Folk productions.

Some of the rhymes are very old indeed. If one will but read "Master Is

Six Feet One Way," found in our collection, he will find in it a

description of a slave owner attired in Colonial garb. It clearly

belongs, as to date of composition, either to Colonial days, or to the

very earliest years of the American Republic. When we consider it as a

slave rhyme, it is far from crudest, notwithstanding the early period of

its production.

If one carefully studies our collection of rhymes, he will probably get

a new and interesting picture of the Negro's mental attitude and

reactions during the days of his enslavement. One of these mental

reactions is calculated to give one a surprise. One would naturally

expect the Negro under hard, trying, bitter slave conditions, to long to

be white. There is a remarkable Negro Folk rhyme which shows that this

was not the case. This rhyme is: "I'd Rather Be a Negro Than a Poor

White Man." We must bear in mind that a Folk Rhyme from its very nature

carries in it the crystallized thought of the masses. This rhyme, though

a little acidic and though we have recorded the milder version, leaves

the unquestioned conclusion that, though the Negro masses may have

wished for the exalted station of the rich Southern white man and

possibly would have willingly had a white color as a passport to

position, there never was a time when the Negro masses desired to be

white for the sake of being white. Of course there is the Negro rhyme,

"I Wouldn't Marry a Black Girl," but along with it is another Negro

rhyme, "I Wouldn't Marry a White or a Yellow Negro Girl." The two rhymes

simply point out together a division of Negro opinion as to the ideal

standard of beauty in personal complexion. One part of the Negroes

thought white or yellow the more beautiful standard and the other part

of the Negroes thought black the more beautiful standard.

The body of the Rhymes, here and there, carries many facts between the

lines, well worth knowing.

This collection also will shed some light on how the Negro managed to go

through so many generations "in slavery and still come out" with a

bright, capable mind. There were no colleges or schools for them, but

there were Folk Rhymes, stories, Jubilee songs, and Nature; they used

these and kept mentally fit.

I now approach the more difficult and probably the most important

portion of my discussion in the Study of Negro Folk Rhymes. It is a

discussion that I would have willingly omitted, had I not thought that

some one owed it to the world. Seeing a debt, as I thought, and not

seeing another to pay it, I have reluctantly undertaken to discharge

the obligation.

If I were so fortunate as to possess a large flower garden with many new

and rare genera and species, and wished to acquaint my friends with

them, I should first take these friends for a walk through the garden,

that they might see the odd tints and hues, might inhale a little of the

new fragrance, and might get some idea as to the prospects for the

utilization of these new plants in the world. Then, taking these friends

back to my study room, I should consider in a friendly manner along with

them, the Families and the Species, and the varieties. Finally, I should

endeavor to lay before them from whence these new and strange flowers

came. I have endeavored to pursue this method in my discussion of the

Negro Folk Rhymes. In the foregoing I have endeavored to take the

friendly reader for a walk through this new and strange garden of

Rhymes, and I now extend an invitation to him to come into the Study

Room for a more critical view of them.

When one enters upon the slightest contemplation of Negro Folk Rhyme

classification, and is kind-hearted enough to dignify them with a claim

to kinship to real poetry, the word _Ballad_ rolls out without the

slightest effort, as a term that takes them all in. Yes, this is very

true, but they are of a strange type indeed. They are Nature Ballads,

many of them, in the sense as ordinarily used. In quite another sense,

however, from that in which Nature Ballad is ordinarily used, about all

Folk Rhymes are Nature Ballads.

I do not have reference to the thought content, but have reference to

what I term Nature Ballads in form. Permit me to explain by analogy just

what I would convey by the term Nature Ballad in form.

All Nature is one. Though we arbitrarily divide Nature's objects for

study, they are indissolubly bound together and every part carries in

some part of its constitution some well defined marks which characterize

the other parts with which it has no immediate connection. To

illustrate: the absolutely pure sapphire, pure aluminic oxide,

crystallized, is commonly colorless, but we know that Nature's most

beautiful sapphires are not colorless, but are blue, and of other

beautiful tints. These color tints are due to minutest traces of other

substances, not at all of general common sapphire composition. We call

them all sapphires, however, regardless of their little impurities which

are present to enhance their charm and beauty. Likewise, all animal life

begins with one cell, and though the one cell in one case develops into

a vertebrate, and in another case into an invertebrate the cells persist

and so all animal life has cellular structure in common. Yet, each

animal branch has predominant traits that distinguish it from all other

branches. This same thing is true of plants.

Nature's method, then, of making things seems to be to put in a large

enough amount of one thing to brand the article, and then to mix in, in

small amounts, enough of other things to lend charm and beauty without

taking the article out of its general class.

This is that which goes to make Negro Folk Rhymes Nature Ballads in

form. They are ballads, but all in the midst of even a Dance Song, by

Nature an ordinary ballad, there may be interwoven comedy, tragedy, and

nearly every kind of imaginable thing which goes rather with other

general forms of poetry than with the ballad. As an example, in the

Dance Song, "Promises of Freedom," we have mustered before our eyes the

comic drawing of a deceptive ugly old Mistress and then follows the

intimation of the tragic death of a poisoned slave owner, and as we are

tempted to dance along in thought with the rhymer, we cannot escape

getting the subtle impression that this slave had at least some "vague"

personal knowledge of how the Master got that poison. It is a common

easy-going ballad, but it is tinted with tragedy and comedy. This

general principle will be found to run very largely through the highest

types of Negro Folk Rhymes. It is the Nature method of construction, and

thus we call them Nature Ballads in structure, or form.

Other good examples of rhymes, Nature Ballads in structure, are "Frog

Went a-Courting," "Sheep Shell Corn," "Jack and Dinah Want Freedom."

I now direct attention further to the classification of Negro Rhymes as

Ballads. My earnest desire was to classify Negro Rhymes under ordinary

headings such as are used by literary men and women everywhere in their

general classification of Ballads. I considered this very important

because it would enable students of comparative Literature to compare

easily the Negro Folk Rhymes with the Folk Rhymes of all peoples. I was

much disappointed when I found that the Negro Folk Rhymes, when invited,

refused to take their places whole-heartedly in the ordinary

classification. As an example of many may be mentioned the little Rhyme

"Jaybird." It is a Dance Song, and thus comes under the Dance Song

Division, commonly used for Ballads. But, it also belongs under Nature

Lore heading, because the Negroes many years ago often told a story, in

conjunction with song, of the great misfortunes which overtook a Negro

who tried to get his living by hunting Jaybirds. Finally it also belongs

under the heading Superstitions, for its last stanza very plainly

alludes to the old Negro superstition of slavery days which declared

that it was almost impossible to find Jaybirds on Friday because they

went to Hades on that day to carry sand to the Devil.

But so important do I think of comparative study that I have taken the

ordinary headings used for Ballads and, after adding that omnibus

heading "Miscellaneous," have done my best. The majority of the Rhymes

can be placed under headings ordinarily used. This was to be expected.

It is in obedience to Natural Law. We see it in the Music World. The

Caucasian music has eight fundamental tones, the Japanese music has

five, while, according to some authorities, Negro Jubilee-music has

nine; yet all these music scales have five tones in common. In the

Periodic System of Elements there are two periods; a short period and a

long period, but both periods embrace, in common, elements belonging to

the same family. So with the Ballads, certain classification headings

will very well take in both the Negro and all others. The Negro Ballad,

however, does not entirely properly fit in. I have therefore resorted to

the following expedient: I have taken the headings ordinarily used, and

have listed under each heading the Negro Rhymes which belong with it, as

nearly as possible. I have placed this classified list at the end of the

book, under the title "Comparative Study Index." By using this Index one

can locate and compare Negro Folk productions with the corresponding

Folk productions of other peoples.

The headings found in this Comparative Study Index are as follows:

1. Love Songs.

2. Dance Songs.

3. Animal and Nature Lore.

4. Nursery Rhymes.

5. Charms and Superstitions.

6. Hunting Songs.

7. Drinking Songs.

8. Wise and Gnomic Sayings.

9. Harvest Songs.

10. Biblical and Religious Themes.

11. Play Songs.

12. Miscellaneous.

With the way paved for others to make such comparative study as they

would like, I now feel free to use a classification which lends itself

more easily to a discussion of the origin and evolution of Negro Rhyme.

The basic principle used in this classification is Origin and under each

source of origin is placed the various classes of Rhymes produced. It

has seemed to the writer, who is himself a Negro, and has spent his

early years in the midst of the Rhymes and witnessed their making, that

there are three great divisions derived from three great mainsprings or

sources.

The Divisions are as follows:

I. Rhymes derived from the Social Instinct.

II. Rhymes derived from the Homing Instinct.

III. Rhymes of Psycho-composite origin.

The terms Social and Homing Instincts are familiar to every one, but the

term Psycho-composite was coined by the writer after much hesitation and

with much regret because he seemed unable to find a word which would

express what he had in mind.

To make clear: the classes of Rhymes falling under Divisions I and II

owe their crudest initial beginnings to instinct, while those under

Division III owe their crudest beginnings partly to instinct, but partly

also to intelligent thinking processes. To illustrate--Courtship Rhymes

come under Division II, because courtship primarily arises from the

homing instinct, but when we come to "quasi" wise sayings--directed

largely to criticism or toward improvement, there is very much more than

instinct concerned. In Division III the Rhymes are directed largely to

improvement. In explanation of why they are in Division III, I would

say, the desire to better one's condition is instinctive, but the

slightest attainment of the desire comes through thought pure and

simple. I have invented the term Psycho-composite to include all this.

In reading the Rhymes under Division III, one finds comparatively large,

abstract, general conclusions, such as--General loquaciousness is

unwise: Assuming to know everything is foolish: Self-control is a great

virtue. Proper preparation must be made before presuming to give

instruction, etc. Such generalizations involve something not necessarily

present in the crudest initiations of such Rhymes as those found under

Divisions I and II. Below is a tabular view of my proposed

classification of Negro Folk Rhymes:

DIVISION CLASS

1. Dance Rhymes

I. Social Instinct Rhymes 2. Dance Rhyme Songs

3. Play Songs

4. Pastime Rhymes

1. Love Rhymes

II. Homing Instinct Rhymes 2. Courtship Rhymes

3. Marriage Rhymes

4. Married Life Rhymes

III. Psycho-composite Rhymes 1. Criticism and Improvement Rhymes

Under this tabulation, let us now proceed to discuss the Origin and

Evolution of Negro Folk Rhymes.

Early in my discussion the reader will recall that I explained in

considerable detail how the Dance Rhyme words were used in the dance. I

am now ready to announce that the Dance Rhyme was derived from the

dance, and to explain how the Dance Rhyme became an evolved product of

the dance.

I witnessed in my early childhood the making of a few Dance Rhymes. I

have forgotten the words of most of those whose individual making I

witnessed but the "Jonah's Band Party" found in our collection is one

whose making I distinctly recall. I shall tell in some detail of its

origin because it serves in a measure to illustrate how the Dance Rhymes

probably had their beginnings. First of all be it known that there was a

"step" in dancing, originated by some Negro somewhere, called "Jonah's

Band" step. There is no need that I should try to describe that step

which, though of the plain dance type, was accompanied from the

beginning to the end by indescribable "frills" of foot motion. I can't

describe it, but if one will take a stick and cause it to tap so as to

knock the words: "Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's band," while he

repeats the words in the time of 2/4 music measure, the taps will

reproduce the tattoo beaten upon the ground by the feet of the dancers,

when they danced the "Jonah's Band" step. The dancers formed a circle

placing two or more of their skilled dancers in the middle of it. Now

when I first witnessed this dance, there were no words said at all.

There was simply patting with the hands and dancing, making a tattoo

which might be well represented by the words supplied later on in its

existence. Later, I witnessed the same dance, where the patting and

dancing were as usual, but one man, apparently the leader, was simply

crying out the words, "Setch a kickin' up san'!" and the crowd answered

with the words, "Jonah's Band!"--the words all being repeated in

rhythmic harmony with the patting and dancing. Thus was born the line,

"Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Band!" In some places it was the

custom to call on the dancers to join with those of the circle, at

intervals in the midst of the dance, in dancing other steps than the

Jonah's Band step. Some dance leaders, for example, simply called in

plain prose--"Dance the Mobile Buck," others calling for another step

would rhyme their call. Thus arose the last lines to each stanza, such

as--

"Raise y[=o]' right foot, kick it up high!

Knock dat 'Mobile Buck' in de eye!"

This is the genesis of the "Jonah's Band Party," found in our

collection. The complete rhyme becomes a fine description of an old-time

Negro party. It is probable that much Dance Rhyme making originated in

this or a similar way.

Let us assume that Negro customs in Slavery days were what they were in

my childhood days, then it would come about that such an ocasional Rhyme

making in a crowd would naturally stimulate individual Rhyme makers, and

from these individuals would naturally grow up "crops" of Dance Rhymes.

Of course I cannot absolutely know, but I think when I witnessed the

making of the "Jonah's Band Party," that I witnessed the stimulus which

had produced the Dance Rhyme through the decades of preceding years. I

realize, however, that this does not account for the finished Rhyme

products. It simply gives one source of origin. How the Rhyme grew to

its complex structure will be discussed later, because that discussion

belongs not to the Dance Rhyme alone, but to all the Rhymes.

There was a final phase of development of "Jonah's Band Party" witnessed

by the writer; namely, the singing of the lines, "Setch a kickin' up

san'! Jonah's Band!" The last lines of the stanzas, the lines calling

for another step on the part of both the circle and the dancers, were

never sung to my knowledge. The little tune to the first lines consisted

of only four notes, and is inserted below.

[music]

I give this as of interest because it marks a partial transition from a

Dance Rhyme to a Dance Rhyme Song. In days of long ago I occasionally

saw a Dance Rhyme Song "patted and danced" instead of sung or played and

danced. This coupled with the transition stage of the "Jonah's Band

Dance" just given has caused me to believe that Dance Rhyme Songs were

probably evolved from Dance Rhymes pure and simple, through individuals

putting melodies to these Dance Rhymes.

As Dance Rhymes came from the dance, so likewise Play Rhymes came from

plays. I shall now discuss the one found in our collection under the

caption--"Goosie-gander." Since the Play has probably passed from the

memory of most persons, I shall tell how it was played. The children

(and sometimes those in their teens) sat in a circle. One individual,

the leader, walked inside the circle, from child to child, and said to

each in turn, "Goosie-gander." If the child answered "Goose," the leader

said, "I turn your ears loose," and went on to the next child. If he

answered "Gander," the leader said, "I pull y[=o]' years 'way yander."

Then ensued a scuffle between the two children; each trying to pull the

other's ears. The fun for the circle came from watching the scuffle.

Finally the child who got his ears pulled took his place in the circle,

leaving the victor as master of ceremonies to call out the challenge

"Goosie-gander!" The whole idea of the play is borrowed from the

fighting of the ganders of a flock of geese for their mates. Many other

plays were likewise borrowed from Nature. Examples are found in "Hawk

and Chickens Play," and "Fox and Geese Play." "Caught by a Witch Play"

is borrowed from superstition. But to return to "Goosie-gander"--most

children of our childhood days played it, using common prose in the

calls, and answers just as we have here described it. A few children

here and there so gave their calls and responses as to rhyme them into a

kind of a little poem as it is recorded in our collection. Without

further argument, I think it can hardly be doubted that the whole thing

began as a simple prose call, and response, and that some child inclined

to rhyming things, started "to do the rest," and was assisted in

accomplishing the task by other children equally or more gifted. This

reasonably accounts for the origin of the Play Rhyme.

Now what of the Play Rhyme Songs? There were many more Play Rhyme Songs

than Play Rhymes. There were some of the Play Rhyme Songs sung in prose

version by some children and the same Play Song would be sung in rhymed

version by other children. Likewise the identical Play Song would not be

sung at all by other children; they would simply repeat the words as in

the case of the Rhyme "Goosie-gander," just discussed. The little Play

Song found in our collection under the caption, "Did You Feed My Cow?"

is one which was current in my childhood in the many versions as just

indicated. The general thought in the story of the Rhyme was the same in

all versions whether prose or rhyme, or song. In cases where children

repeated it instead of singing it, it was generally in prose and the

questions were so framed by the leader that all the general responses by

the crowd were "Yes, Ma'am!" Where it was sung, it was invariably

rhymed; and the version found in this collection was about the usual

one.

The main point in the discussion at this juncture is--that there were

large numbers of Play Songs like this one found in the transition stage

from plain prose to repeated rhyme, and to sung rhyme. Such a status

leaves little doubt that the Play Song travelled this general road in

its process of evolution.

I might take up the Courtship Rhymes, and show that they are derivatives

of Courtship, and so on to the end of all the classes given in my

outline, but since the evidences and arguments in all the cases are

essentially the same I deem it unnecessary.

I now turn attention to a peculiar general ideal in Form found in Negro

Folk Rhymes. It probably is not generally known that the Negroes, who

emerged from the House of Bondage in the 60's of the last century, had

themselves given a name to their own peculiar form of verse. If it be

known I am rather confident that it has never been written. They named

the parts of their verse "Call," and (Re) "Sponse." After explaining

what is meant by "call" and "sponse," I shall submit an evidence on the

matter. In its simplest form "call" and "sponse" were what we would call

in Caucasian music, solo and chorus. As an example, in the little Play

Song used in our illustration of Play Songs, "Did You Feed My Cow?" was

sung as a solo and was known as the "Call," while the chorus that

answered "Yes, Ma'am" was known as the "Sponse."

I now beg to offer testimony in corroboration of my assertion that

Negroes had named their Rhyme parts "Call" and "Sponse." So well were

these established parts of a Negro Rhyme recognized among Negroes that

the whole turning point of one of their best stories was based upon it.

I have reference to the Negro story recorded by Mr. Joel Chandler Harris

in his "Nights with Uncle Remus," under the caption, "Brother Fox,

Brother Rabbit, and King Deer's Daughter." Those who would enjoy the

story, as the writer did in his childhood days, as it fell from the lips

of his dear little friends and dusky playmates, will read the story in

Mr. Harris' book. The gist of the story is as follows: The fox and the

rabbit fall in love with King Deer's daughter. The fox has just about

become the successful suitor, when the rabbit goes through King Deer's

lot and kills some of King Deer's goats. He then goes to King Deer, and

tells him that the fox killed the goats, and offers to make the fox

admit the deed in King Deer's hearing. This being agreed to, the rabbit

goes to find the fox, and proposes that they serenade the King Deer

family. The fox agreed. Then the rabbit proposes that he sing the "Call"

and that the fox sing the "Sponse" (or, as Mr. Harris records the story,

the "answer"), and this too was agreed upon. We now quote from Mr.

Harris:

"Ole Br'er Rabbit, he make up de song he own se'f en' he fix it so that

he sing de _Call_ lak de Captain er de co'n-pile, en ole Br'er Fox, he

hatter sing de answer...." "Ole Br'er Rabbit, he got de call en he open

up lak dis:

"'Some folks pile up mo'n dey kin tote,

En dat w'at de matter wid King Deer's goat.'

en den Br'er Fox, he make _answer_, 'Dat's so, dat's so, en I'm glad dat

it's so.' Den de quills, and de tr'angle, dey come in, en den Br'er

Rabbit pursue on wid de call--

"'Some kill sheep, en some kill shote,

But Br'er Fox kill King Deer goat,'

en den Br'er Fox, he jine in wid de answer, 'I did, I did, en I'm glad

dat I did.'"

The writer would add that the story ends with a statement that King Deer

came out with his walking cane, and beat the fox, and then invited the

rabbit in to eat chicken pie.

From the foregoing one will recognize the naming, by the Negroes

themselves, of the parts of their rhymed song, as "call," and "answer."

Now just a word concerning the term "answer," instead of "sponse," as

used by the writer. You will notice that Mr. Harris records,

incidentally, of Br'er Rabbit "dat he sing de _call_, lak de Captain er

de co'n pile." This has reference to the singing of the Negroes at corn

huskings where the leader sings a kind of solo part, and the others by

way of response, sing a kind of chorus. At corn huskings, at plays, and

elsewhere, when Negroes sang secular songs, some one was chosen to lead.

As a little boy, I witnessed secular singing in all these places. When a

leader was chosen, the invariable words of his commission were: "You

sing the 'call' and we'll sing the '_sponse_.'" Of course the sentence

was not quite so well constructed grammatically, but "call" and "sponse"

were the terms always used. This being true, I have felt that I ought to

use these terms, though I recognize the probability of there being

communities where the word _answer_ would be used. All folk terms and

writings have different versions.

The "sponses" in most of the Negro Folk Rhymes in our collection are

wanting, and the Rhymes themselves, in most cases, consist of calls

only. As examples of those with "sponses" left, may be mentioned "Juba"

with its sponse "Juba"; "Frog Went A-courting," with its sponse

"Uh-huh!"; "Did You Feed My Cow?" with its sponse "Yes, Ma'am," etc.,

and "The Old Black Gnats," where the sponses are "I cain't git out'n

here, etc."

I shall now endeavor to show why the Negro Folk Rhymes consist in most

cases of "calls" only, and how and why the "sponses" have disappeared

from the finished product. I record here the notes of two common Negro

Play Songs along with sample stanzas used in the singing of them. I hope

through a little study of these, to make clear the matter of Folk Rhyme

development, to the point of dropping the "sponse."

[music]

[music]

These simple little songs,--the first made up of five notes, and the

second of seven,--are typical Negro Play songs. I shall not describe the

simple play which accompanied them because that description would not

add to the knowledge of the evolution under consideration.

At a Negro Evening Entertainment several such songs would be sung and

played, and some individual would be chosen to lead or sing the "calls"

of each of the songs. The 'sponses in some cases were meaningless

utterances, like "Holly Dink," given in the first song recorded, while

others were made up of some sentence like "'Tain't Gwineter Rain No

M[=o]'!" found in the second song given. The "sponses" were not expected

to bear a special continuous relation in thought to the "calls." Indeed

no one ever thought of the 'sponses as conveyers of thought, whether

jumbled syllables or sentences. The songs went under the names of the

various sponses. Thus the first Play Song recorded was known as "Holly

Dink," and the second as "'Tain't Gwineter Rain No M[=o]'."

The playing and singing of each of these songs commonly went on

continuously for a quarter of an hour or more. This being the case, we

scarcely need add that the leader of the Play Song had both his memory

and ingenuity taxed to their utmost, in devising enough "calls" to last

through so long a period of time of continuous playing and singing. The

reader will notice under both of the Play Songs recorded, that I have

written under "(a)" two stanzas of prose "calls." I would convey the

thought to the reader, by these illustrations, that the one singing the

"calls" was at liberty to use, and did use any prose sentence that would

fit in with the "call" measures of the song.

Of course these prose "calls" had to be rhythmic to fit into the

measures, but much freedom was allowed in respacing the time allotted to

notes, and in the redivision of the notes in the "fitting in" process.

Even these prose stanzas bore the mark of Rhyme to the Negro fancy. The

reader will notice that, where the "call" is in prose, it is always

repeated, and thus the line in fancy rhymed with itself. Examples as

found in our Second Play Song:

"Hail storm, frosty night.

Hail storm, frosty night."

Now, it was considered by Negroes, in the days gone by, something of an

accomplishment for a leader to be able to sing "calls," for so long a

time, when they bore some meaning, and still a greater accomplishment

to sing the calls both in rhyme and with meaning. This led each

individual to rhyme his calls as far as possible because leaders were

invited to lead songs during an evening's entertainment, largely in

accordance with their ability, and thus those desiring to lead were

compelled to make attainment in both rhyme and meaning. Now, the reader

will notice under "Holly Dink," heading "(b)," "I sh[=o]' loves Miss

Donie." This is a part of the opening line of our Negro Rhyme, "Likes

and Dislikes." I would convey the thought to the reader that this whole

Rhyme, and any other Negro Rhyme which would fit into a 2/4 music

measure, could be, and was used by the Play Song leader in singing the

calls of "Holly Dink." Thus a leader would lead such a song; and by

using one whole Rhyme after another, succeed in rhyming the calls for a

quarter of an hour. If his Rhymes "gave out," he used rhythmic prose

calls; and since these did not need to have meaning, his store was

unlimited. Just as any Rhyme which could be fitted into a 2/4 music

measure would be used with "Holly Dink," so any Rhyme which could be

fitted into a 4/4 measure would be used with the "'Tain't Gwineter Rain

No M[=o]'." Illustrations given under "(b)" and "(c)" under the last

mentioned song are--"Promises of Freedom," and "Hawk and Buzzard."

Since all Negro Songs with a few exceptions were written in 4/4 measures

and 2/4 measures, and Negro rhymed "calls" were also written in the same

way, the rhymed "calls" which may have originated with one song were

transferred to, and used with other songs. _Thus the rhymed "calls"

becoming detached for use with any and all songs into which they could

be fitted, gave rise to the multitude of Negro Folk Rhymes, a small

fragment of which multitude is recorded in our collection._ Negro Dances

and Dance Rhymes were both constructed in 2/4 and 4/4 measures, and the

Rhymes were propagated for that same reason. Rhymes, once detached from

their original song or dance, were learned, and often repeated for mere

pastime, and thus they were transmitted to others as unit compositions.

We have now seen how detached rhymed "calls" made our Negro Folk Rhymes.

Next let us consider how and why whole little "poems" arose in a Play

Song. One will notice in reading Negro Folk Rhymes that the larger

number of them tell a little story or give some little comic

description, or some little striking thought. Since all the Rhymes had

to be memorized to insure their continued existence, and since Memory

works largely through Association; one readily sees that the putting of

the Rhymes into a story, descriptive, or striking thought form, was the

only thing that could cause their being kept alive. It was only through

their being composed thus that Association was able to assist Memory in

recalling them. Those carrying another form carried their death warrant.

Now let us look a little more intimately into how the Rhymes were

probably composed. In collecting them, I often had the same Rhyme given

to me over and over again by different individuals. Most of the Rhymes

were given by different individuals in fragmentary form. In case of all

the Rhymes thus received, there would always be a half stanza, or a

whole stanza which all contributors' versions held in common. As

examples: in "Promises of Freedom," all contributors gave the lines--

"My ole Mistiss promise me

W'en she died, she'd set me free."

In "She Hugged Me and Kissed Me," the second stanza was given by all. In

"Old Man Know-All," the first two lines of the last stanza came from all

who gave the Rhyme. The writer terms these parts of the individual

Rhymes, seemingly known to all who know the "poems," _key verses_. The

very fact that the key verses, only, are known to all, seems to me to

warrant the conclusion that these were probably the first verses made in

each individual Rhyme. Now when an individual made such a key verse, one

can easily see that various singers of "calls" using it would attempt to

associate other verses of their own making with it in order to remember

them all for their long "singing Bees." The story, the description, and

the striking thought furnished convenient vehicles for this association

of verses, so as to make them easy to keep in memory. This is why the

verses of many singers of "Calls" finally became blended into little

poem-like Rhymes.

I have pointed out "call" and "sponse," in Rhymes, and have shown how,

through them, in song, the form of the Negro Rhyme came into existence.

But many of the Pastime Rhymes apparently had no connection with the

Play or the Dance. I must now endeavor to account for such Rhymes as

these.

In order to do this, I must enter upon the task of trying to show how

"call" and "sponse" originated.

The origin of "call" and "sponse" is plainly written on the faces of the

rhymes of the Social Instinct type. Read once again the following rhyme

recorded in our collection under the caption of "Antebellum Courtship

Inquiry"--

(He)--"Is you a flyin' lark, or a settin' dove?"

(She)--"I'se a flyin' lark, my Honey Love."

(He)--"Is you a bird o' one fedder, or a bird o' two?"

(She)--"I'se a bird o' one fedder, w'en it comes to you."

(He)--"Den Mam:

"I has desire an' quick temptation

To jine my fence to y[=o]' plantation."

This is primitive courtship; direct, quick, conclusive. It is the crude

call of one heart, and the crude response of another heart. The two

answering and blending into one, in the primitive days, made a rhymed

couplet--one. It is "call" and "sponse," born to vibrate in

complementary unison with two hearts that beat as one. "Did all Negroes

carry on courtship in this manner in olden days?" No, not by any means.

Only the more primitive by custom, and otherwise used such forms of

courtship. The more intelligent of those who came out of slavery had

made the white man's customs their own, and laughed at such crudities,

quite as much as we of the present day. The writer thinks his ability

to recall from childhood days a clear remembrance of many of these

crude things is due to the fact that he belonged to a Negro family that

laughed much, early and late, at such things. But the simple forms of

"call" and "sponse" were used much in courtship by the more primitive.

This points out something of the general origin of "call" and "sponse"

in Social Instinct Rhymes, but does not account for their origin in

other types of Rhymes. I now turn attention to those.

About eighteen years ago I was making a Sociological investigation for

Tuskegee Institute, which carried me into a remote rural district in the

Black Belt of Alabama. In the afternoon, when the Negro laborers were

going home from the fields and occasionally during the day, these

laborers on one plantation would utter loud musical "calls" and the

"calls" would be answered by musical responses from the laborers on

other plantations. These calls and responses had no peculiar

significance. They were only for whatever pleasure these Negroes found

in the cries and apparently might be placed in a parallel column

alongside of the call of a song bird in the woods being answered by

another. Dr. William H. Sheppard, many years a missionary in Congo,

Africa, upon inquiry, tells me that similar calls and responses obtain

there, though not so musical. He also tells me that the calls have a

meaning there. There are calls and responses for those lost in the

forest, for fire, for the approach of enemies, etc. These Alabama Negro

calls, however, had no meaning, and yet the calls and responses so

fitted into each other as to make a little complete tune.

Now, I had heard "field" calls all during my early childhood in

Tennessee, and these also were answered by men in adjoining fields. But

the Tennessee calls and responses which I remembered had no kinship

which would combine them into a kind of little completed song as was the

case with the Alabama calls and responses.

Again, in Tennessee when a musical call was uttered by the laborers in

one field, those in the other fields around would often use identically

the same call as a response. The Alabama calls and responses were short,

while those of Tennessee were long.

I am listing an Alabama "call" and "response." I regret that I cannot

recall more of them. I am also recording three Tennessee calls or

responses (for they may be called either). Then I am recording a fourth

one from Tennessee, not exactly a call, but partly call and partly song.

The reason for this will appear later. By a study of these I think we

can pretty reasonably make a final interesting deduction as to the

general origin of "call" and "sponse" in the form of the types of Rhyme

not already discussed.

In the Alabama Field Call and response one cannot help seeing a

counterpart in music of the "call" and "sponse" in the words of the

types of Rhymes already discussed.

ALABAMA FIELD CALL AND RESPONSE

[music]

TENNESSEE FIELD CALLS OR RESPONSES

[music]

If one looks at Number 1 under the Tennessee calls or responses, there

is nothing to indicate especially that it was ever other than the whole

as it is here written. But when he looks at Number 2 under Tennessee

calls or responses he is struck with the remarkable fact that it changes

right in the midst from the rhythm of the 9/8 measure to that of the 6/8

measure. Now if there be any one characteristic which is constant in

Negro music it is that the rhythm remains the same throughout a given

production. In a very, very few long Negro productions I have known an

occasional change in the time, but _never_ in a musical production

consisting of a few measures. The only reasonable explanation to be

offered for the break in the time of Number 2, as a Negro production, is

that it was originally a "call" and "response"; the "call" being in a

9/8 measure and the "response" being in a 6/8 measure. Here then we have

"call" and "sponse." It would look as if the Negroes in Tennessee had

combined the "calls" and "sponses" into one and had used them as a

whole. When we accept this view all the differences, between the Alabama

and Tennessee productions, before mentioned are accounted for. Then

looking again at Number 1 under Tennessee calls or responses, one sees

that it would conveniently divide right in the middle to make a "call"

and "sponse." Now look at Number 3 under Tennessee calls. It was usually

cried off with the syllable _ah_ and would easily divide in the middle.

I remember this "call" very distinctly from my childhood because the men

giving it placed the thumb upon the larynx and made it vibrate

longitudinally while uttering the cry. The thumb thus used produced a

peculiar screeching and rattling tone that hardly sounded human. But the

words "I want a piece of hoecake, etc.," as recorded under the "call,"

were often rhymed off in song with it. Thus we trace the form of "call"

and "sponse" from the friendly musical greeting between laborers at a

distance to the place of the formation of a crude Rhyme to go with it. I

would have the reader notice that these words finally supplied were in

"call" and "sponse" form. The idea is that one individual says: "I want

a piece of hoecake, I want a piece o' bread," and another chimes in by

way of response: "Well, I'se so tired and hongry dat I'se almos' dead."

"Ole Billie Bawlie" found as Number 4 was a little song which was used

to deride men who had little ability musically to intonate "calls" and

"sponses." The name "Bawlie" was applied to emphasize that the

individual bawled instead of sounding pleasant notes. It is of interest

to us because it is a mixture of Rhyme and Field "call" and completes

the connecting links along the line of Evolution between the "call" and

"sponse" and the Rhyme.

Wherever one thing is derived from another by process of Evolution,

there is the well known biological law that there ought to be every

grade of connecting link between the original and the last evolved

product. The law holds good here in our Rhymes. If this last statement

holds good then the law must be universal. May we be permitted to

digress enough to show that the law is universal because, though it is a

law whose biological phase has been long recognized, not much attention

has been paid to it in other fields.

It holds good in the world of inanimate matter. There are three general

classes of chemical compounds: Acids, bases, and salts. But along with

these three general classes are found all kinds of connecting links:

Acid salts, basic salts, hydroxy acids, etc.

It holds good in the animal and plant worlds. Looking at the ancestors

of the horse in geological history we find that the first kind of horse

to appear upon the earth was the Oeohippus. He had four toes on the

hind foot and three on the front one. Through a long period of

development, the present day one-toed horse descended from this

many-toed primitive horse. There is certainty of the line of descent of

the horse because all the connecting links have been discovered in

fossil form, between the primitive horse and the present day horse.

Plants in like manner show all kinds of connecting links.

The law holds sway in the world of language; and that is the world with

which we are concerned here. The state of Louisiana once belonged to the

French; now it belongs to an English-speaking people. If one goes among

the Creoles in Louisiana he will find a very few who speak almost

Parisian French and very poor English. Then he will find a very large

number who speak a pure English and a very poor French. Between these

classes he will find those speaking all grades of French and English.

These last mentioned are the connecting links, and the connecting links

bespeak a line of evolution where those of French descent are gradually

passing over to a class which will finally speak the English language

exclusively.

Now let us turn our attention again directly to the discussion of the

evolution of Negro Folk Rhymes. One can judge whether or not he has

discovered the correct line of descent of the Rhymes by seeing whether

or not he has all the connecting links requisite to the line of

evolution. I think it must be agreed that I have given every type of

connecting link between common Field "calls" and "sponses," and

incipient crude Negro Rhymes. They set the mold for the other general

Negro Rhymes not hitherto discussed.

If the reader will be kind enough to apply the test of connecting links

to the Play and other Rhymes already discussed, he will find that the

reactions will indicate that we have traced their correct lines of

origin and descent.

The spirit of "call" and "sponse" hovers ghost-like over the very

thought of many Negro Rhymes. In "Jaybird," the first two lines of each

stanza are a call in thought, while the last two lines are a "sponse" in

thought to it. The same is true of "He Is My Horse," "Stand Back, Black

Man," "Bob-White's Song," "Promises of Freedom," "The Town and the

Country Bird," and many others.

Then "call" and "sponse" looms up in the midst in thought between stanza

and stanza in many Rhymes. Good examples are found in "The Great Owl's

Song," "Sheep and Goat," "The Snail's Reply," "Let's Marry--Courtship,"

"Shoo! Shoo!" "When I Go to Marry," and many others.

"Call" and "sponse" even runs, at least in one case, between whole

Rhymes. "I Wouldn't Marry a Black Girl" as a "call" has for its

"sponse": "I Wouldn't Marry a Yellow or a White Negro Girl." The Rhyme

"I'd Rather Be a Negro Than a Poor White Man" is a "sponse" to an

imaginary "call" that the Negro is inferior by nature.

After some consideration, as compiler of the Negro Rhymes, I thought I

ought to say something of their rhyming system, but before doing this I

want to consider for a little the general structure of a stanza in Negro

Rhymes.

Of course there is no law, but the number of lines in a stanza of

English poetry is commonly a multiple of two. The large majority of

Negro Rhymes follows this same rule, but, even in case of these, the

lines are so unsymmetrical that they make but the faintest approach to

the commonly accepted standards. Then there are Rhymes with stanzas of

three lines and there are those with five, six, and seven lines. This is

because the imaginary music measure is the unit of measurement instead

of feet, and the stanzas are all right so long as they run in consonance

with the laws governing music measures and rhythm. In a tune like "Old

Hundred" commonly used in churches as a Doxology, there are four

divisions in the music corresponding with the four lines of the stanza.

Each division is called, in music, a Phrase. Two of these Phrases make a

Phrase Group and two Phrase Groups make a Period. Now when one moves

musically through a Phrase Group his sense of rhythm is partially

satisfied and when he has moved through a Period the sense of Rhythm is

entirely satisfied.

When one reads the three line stanzas of Negro Folk Rhymes he passes

through a music Period and thus the stanza satisfies in its rhythm.

Example:

"Bridle up er rat,

Saddle up er cat,

An' han' me down my big straw hat."

Here the first two lines are a Phrase each and constitute together a

Phrase Group. The third line is made up of two Phrases, or a Phrase

Group in itself. Thus this third line along with the first two makes a

Music Period and the whole satisfies our rhythmic sense though the lines

are apparently odd. In all Negro Rhymes, however odd in number and

however ragged may seem the lines, the music Phrases and Periods are

there in such symmetry as to satisfy our sense of rhythm.

I now turn attention to the rhyming of the lines in Negro verse. The

ordinary systems of rhyming as set forth by our best authors will take

in most Negro Rhymes. Most of them are Adjacent and Interwoven Rhymes.

There are five systems of rhyming commonly used in the white man's

poetry but the Negro Rhyme has nine systems. Here again we find a

parallelism, as in case of music scales, etc. Five in each system are

the same. The ordinary commonly accepted systems are:

a Where the adjacent lines rhyme by twos. We

a call it "Adjacent rhymes" or a "Couplet."

a

b Where the alternating lines rhyme we

a call it "Alternate" or "Interwoven Rhyme."

b

a Where lines 1 and 4, and 2 and 3 rhyme

b respectively with each other. This is called

b "Close Rhyme."

a

a Where in a stanza of four lines, lines 2 and

b 4 only rhyme. This is sometimes also called

c "Alternate Rhyme."

b

a

a Where in a stanza of four lines 1, 2 and 4

b rhyme. This is called "Interrupted Rhyme."

a

I now beg to offer a system of classification in rhyming which will

include all Negro Rhymes. I shall insert the ordinary names in

parenthesis along with the new names wherever the system coincides with

the ordinary system for white men's Rhymes. The only reason for not

using the old names exclusively in these places is that nomenclature

should be kept consistent in any proposed classification, so far as that

is possible.

In classifying the rhyming of the lines or verses I have borrowed terms

from the gem world, partly because the Negro hails from Africa, a land

of gems; and partly because the verses bear whatever beauty there might

have been in his crude crystalized thoughts in the dark days of his

enslavement.

I present herewith the outline and follow it with explanations:

_Class_ _Systems_

I Rhythmic Solitaire (a) Rhythmic measured lines

II Rhymed Doublet (a) Regular (Adjacent Rhyme)

(b) Divided (Includes Close Rhyme)

(c) Supplemented

III Rhyming Doublet (a) Regular (Includes Alternate Rhyme)

(b) Inverted (Close Rhyme)

IV Rhymed Cluster (a) Regular

(b) Divided (Interrupted Rhyme)

(c) Supplemented

_I a._ Rhythmic Solitaire, Rhythmic measured lines. In many Rhymes there

is a rhythmic line dropped in here and there that doesn't rhyme with

any other line. They are rhythmic like the other lines and serve equally

to fill out the music Phrases and Periods. These are the Rhythmic

Solitaires and because of their solitaire nature it follows that there

is only one system. Examples are found in the first line of each stanza

of "Likes and Dislikes"; in the second line of each stanza of "Old Aunt

Kate;" in lines five and six of each stanza of "I'll Wear Me a Cotton

Dress," in lines three and four of the "Sweet Pinks Kissing Song," etc.

The Rhythmic Solitaires do not seem to have been largely used by Negroes

for whole compositions. Only one whole Rhyme in our collection is

written with Rhythmic Solitaires. That Rhyme is: "Song to the Runaway

Slave." This Rhyme is made up of blank verse as measured by the white

man's standard.

_II a._ The Regular Rhymed Doublet. This is the same as our common

Adjacent Rhyme. There are large numbers of Negro Rhymes which belong to

this system. The "Jaybird" is a good example.

_II b._ The Divided Rhymed Doublet. It includes Close Rhyme and there

are many of this system. In ordinary Close Rhyme one set of rhyming

lines (two in number) is separated by two intervening lines, but this

"Rhyming Couplet" in Negro Rhymes may be separated by three lines as in

"Bought Me a Wife," where the divided doublet consists of lines 3 and 7.

Then the Divided Rhymed Doublet may be separated by only one line, as in

"Good-by, Wife," where the Doublet is found in lines 5 and 7.

_II c._ The Supplemented Rhymed Doublet. It is illustrated by "Juba"

found in our collection. The words "Juba! Juba!" found following the

second line of each stanza, are the supplement. I shall take up the

explanation of Supplemented Rhyme later, since the explanation goes with

all Supplemented Rhyme and not with the Doublet only. I consider the

Supplement one of the things peculiarly characteristic of Negro Rhyme.

The following stanza illustrates such a Supplemented Doublet:

"Juba jump! Juba sing!

Juba cut dat Pidgeon's Wing! Juba! Juba!"

Representing such a rhyming by letters we have

(a

(a-x

_III._ The Rhyming Doublet. It is generally made up of two consecutive

lines not rhyming with each other but so constructed that one of the

lines will rhyme with one line of another Doublet similarly constructed

and found in the same stanza.

_III a._ The Regular Rhyming Doublet. It is the same as our common

interwoven rhyme and is very common among Negro Rhymes. There is one

peculiar Interwoven Rhyme found in our collection; it is "Watermelon

Preferred." In it the second Rhyming Doublet is divided by a kind of

parenthetic Rhythmic Solitaire.

_III b._ The Inverted Rhyming Doublet. It is the same as our ordinary

Close Rhyme.

The writer had expected to find the Supplemented Rhyming Doublet among

Negro Rhymes but peculiarly enough it does not seem to exist.

_IV a._ The Regular Rhymed Cluster. It consists of three consecutive

lines in the same stanza which rhyme. An example is found in "Bridle Up

a Rat," one of whose stanzas we have already quoted. It is represented

by the lettering

(a

(a

(a

_IV. b._ The Divided Rhymed Cluster. It includes ordinary Interrupted

Rhyme--with the lettering

(a An example is found in the Ebo or

(a Guinea Rhyme "Tree Frogs."

(b

(a

But in Negro Folk Rhymes two lines may divide the Rhymed Cluster

instead of one. An example of this is found in "Animal Fair," whose

rhyming may be represented by the lettering

(a

(a

(b

(b

(a

_IV c._ The Supplemented Rhymed Clusters. They are well represented in

Negro Rhymes. Some have a single supplement as in "Negroes Never Die,"

whose rhyming is lettered

(a

(a

(a-x

Some have double supplements as in "Frog Went a-Courting" whose rhyming

is lettered

(a-x

(a

(a-x

Now Negroes did not retain, permanently, meaningless words in their

Rhymes. The Rhymes themselves were "calls" and had meaning. The

"sponses," such as "Holly Dink," "Jing-Jang," "Oh, fare you well,"

"'Tain't gwineter rain no more," etc., that had no meaning, died year

after year and new "sponses" and songs came into existence.

Let us see what these permanently retained seemingly senseless

Supplements mean.

In "Frog Went a-Courting" we see the Supplement "uh-huh! uh-huh!" It is

placed in the midst to keep vividly before the mind of the listener the

ardent singing of the frog in Spring during his courtship season, while

we hear a recounting of his adventures. It is to this Simple Rhyme what

stage scenery is to the Shakespearian play or the Wagnerian opera. It

seems to me (however crude his verse) that the Negro has here suggested

something new to the field of poetry. He suggests that, while one

recounts a story or what not, he could to advantage use words at the

same time having no bearing on the story to depict the surroundings or

settings of the production. The gifted Negro poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar,

has used the supplement in this way in one of his poems. The poem is

called "A Negro Love Song." The little sentence, "Jump back, Honey, jump

back," is thrown in, in the midst and at the end of each stanza.

Explaining it, the following is written by a friend, at the heading of

this poem:

"During the World's Fair he (Mr. Dunbar) served for a short time as a

hotel waiter. When the Negroes were not busy they had a custom of

congregating and talking about their sweethearts. Then a man with a tray

would come along and, as the dining-room was frequently crowded, he

would say when in need of passing room, 'Jump back, Honey, jump back.'

Out of the commonplace confidences, he wove the musical little

composition--'A Negro Love Song.'"

Now, this line, "Jump back, Honey, jump back," was used by Mr. Dunbar to

recall and picture before the mind the scurrying hotel waiter as he

bragged to his fellows of his sweetheart and told his tales of

adventure. It is the "stage scenery" method used by the slave Negro

verse maker. Mr. Dunbar uses this style also in "A Lullaby,"

"Discovered," "Lil' Gal" and "A Plea." Whether he used it knowingly in

all cases, or whether he instinctively sang in the measured strains of

his benighted ancestors, I do not know.

The Supplement was used in another way in Negro Folk Dance Rhymes. I

have already explained how the Rhymes were used in a general way in the

Dance. Let us glance at the Dance Rhyme "Juba" with its Supplement,

"Juba! Juba!" to illustrate this special use of the Supplement. "Juba"

itself was a kind of dance step. Now let us imagine two dancers in a

circle of men to be dancing while the following lines are being patted

and repeated:

"Juba Circle, raise de latch,

Juba dance dat Long Dog Scratch, Juba! Juba!"

While this was being patted and repeated, the dancers within the circle

described a circle with raised foot and ended doing a dance step called

"Dog Scratch." Then when the Supplement "Juba! Juba!" was said the whole

circle of men joined in the dance step "Juba" for a few moments. Then

the next stanza would be repeated and patted with the same general order

of procedure.

The Supplement, then, in the Dance Rhyme was used as the signal for all

to join in the dance for a while at intervals after they had witnessed

the finished foot movements of their most skilled dancers.

The Supplement was used in a third way in Negro Rhymes. This is

illustrated by the Rhyme, "Anchor Line" where the Supplement is "Dinah."

This was a Play Song and was commonly used as such, but the Negro boy

often sang such a song to his sweetheart, the Negro father to his child,

etc. When such songs were sung on other occasions than the Play, the

name of the person to whom it was being sung was often substituted for

the name Dinah. Thus it would be sung

"I'se gwine out on de Anchor Line--Mary," etc.

The Supplement then seems to have been used in some cases to broaden the

scope of direct application of the Rhyme.

The last use of the Supplement to be mentioned is closely related in its

nature to the "stage scenery" use already mentioned. This kind of

Supplement is used to depict the mental condition or attitude of an

individual passing through the experiences being related. Good examples

are found in "My First and My Second Wife" where we have the

Supplements, "Now wusn't I sorrowful in mind," etc.; and in "Stinky

Slave Owners" with its Supplements "Eh-Eh!" "Sho-sho!" etc.

The Negro Rhymes here and there also have some kind of little

introductory word or line to each stanza. I consider this also something

peculiar to Negro Rhyme. I have named these little introductory words or

sentences the "Verse Crown." They are receivers into which verses are

set and serve as dividing lines in the production. As the reader knows,

the portion of the ring which receives the gems and sets them into a

harmonious whole is called the "Crown." Having borrowed the terms

Solitaire, Doublet, etc., for the verses, the name for these

introductory words and lines automatically became "Verse Crown."

Just as I have figuratively termed the Supplements in one place "stage

scenery," so I may with equal propriety term the "Verse Crown" the

"rise" or the "fall" of the stage curtain. They separate the little Acts

of the Rhymes into scenes. As an example read the comic little Rhyme "I

Walked the Roads." The word "Well" to the first stanza marks the raising

of the curtain and we see the ardent Negro boy lover nonsensically

prattling to the one of his fancy about everything in creation until he

is so tired that he can scarcely stand erect. The curtain drops and

rises with the word "Den." In this, the second scene, he finally gets

around to the point where he makes all manner of awkward protestations

of love. The hearer of the Rhyme is left laughing, with a sort of

satisfactory feeling that possibly he succeeded in his suit and possibly

he didn't. Among the many examples of Rhymes where verse crowns serve as

curtains to divide the Acts into scenes may be mentioned "I Wish I Was

an Apple," "Rejected by Eliza Jane," "Courtship," "Plaster," "The Newly

Weds," and "Four Runaway Negroes."

Though the stanzas in Negro Rhymes commonly have just one kind of

rhyming, in some cases as many as three of the systems of rhyming are

found in one stanza. I venture to suggest the calling of those with one

system "Simple Rhymed Stanzas;" those with two, "Complex Rhymed

Stanzas;" those with more than two "Complicated Complex Rhymed Stanzas."

I next call attention to the seeming parodies found occasionally among

Negro Rhymes. The words of most Negro parodies are such that they are

not fit for print. We have recorded three: "He Paid Me Seven," Parody on

"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," and Parody on "Reign, Master Jesus,

Reign." We can best explain the nature of the Negro Parody by taking

that beautiful and touching well-known Jubilee song, "Steal Away to

Jesus" and briefly recounting the story of its origin. Its history is

well known. We hope the reader will not be disappointed when we say that

this song is a parody in the sense in which Negroes composed and used

parodies.

The words around which the whole song ranges itself are "Steal away to

Jesus, I hain't got long to stay here." Now the slave Negroes on the far

away plantations of the South occasionally met in the dead of night in

some secluded lonely spot for a religious meeting even when they had

been forbidden to do so by their masters. So they made up this song,

"Steal away to Jesus, I hain't got long to stay here." Late in the

afternoons when the slaves on any plantation sang it, it served as a

notice to slaves on other plantations that a secret religious meeting

was to be held that night at the place formerly mutually agreed upon for

meetings.

Now here is where the parody comes in under the Negro standard: To the

slave master the words meant that his good, obedient slaves were only

studying how to be good and to get along peaceably, because they

considered, after all, that their time upon earth was short and not of

much consequence; but to the listening Negro it meant both a

notification of a meeting and slaves disobedient enough to go where they

wanted to go. To the listening master it meant that the Negro was

thinking of what a short time it would be before he would die and leave

the earth, but to the listening slaves it meant that he was thinking of

how short a time it would be before he left the cotton field for a

pleasant religious meeting. All these meanings were truly literally

present but the meaning apparent depended upon the viewpoint of the

listener. It was composed thus, so that if the master suspected the

viewpoint of the slave hearers, the other viewpoint, intended for him,

might be held out in strong relief.

Now let us consider the parodies recorded in our Collection. The Parody

on the beautiful little child prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep" is

but the bitter protest from the heart of the woman who, after putting

the little white children piously repeating this child prayer, "Now I

lay me down to sleep," in their immaculate beds, herself retired to a

vermin infested cabin with no time left for cleaning it. It was a tirade

against the oppressor but the comic, good-natured "It means nothing" was

there to be held up to those calling the one repeating it to task. The

parody on "Reign, Master Jesus, Reign!" when heard by the Master meant

only a good natured jocular appeal to him for plenty of meat and bread,

but with the Negro it was a scathing indictment of a Christian earthly

master who muzzled those who produced the food. "He Paid Me Seven" is a

mock at the white man for failing to practice his own religion but the

clown mask is there to be held up for safety to any who may see the

_real_ side and take offense.

Slave parodies, then, are little Rhymes capable of two distinct

interpretations, both of which are true. They were so composed that if a

slave were accused through one interpretation, he could and would

truthfully point out the other meaning to the accuser and thus escape

serious trouble.

Under all the classes of Negro Rhymes, with the exception of the one

Marriage Ceremony Rhyme, there were those which were sung and played on

instruments. Since instrumental music called into existence some of the

very best among Negro Rhymes it seems as if a little ought to be said

concerning the Negro's instruments. Banjos and fiddles (violins) were

owned only limitedly by antebellum Negroes. Those who owned them

mastered them to such a degree that the memory of their skill will long

linger. These instruments are familiar and need no discussion.

Probably the Negro's most primitive instrument, which he could call his

very own, was "Quills." It is mentioned in the story, "Brother Fox,

Brother Rabbit, and King Deer's Daughter" which I have already quoted at

some length. If the reader will notice in this story he will see, after

the singing of the first stanza by the rabbit and fox, a description in

these words, "Den de quills and de tr'angle, dey come in, an' den Br'er

Rabbit pursue on wid de call." Here we have described in the Negro's own

way the long form of instrumental music composition which we have

hitherto discussed, and "quills" and "tr'angles" are given as the

instruments.

In my early childhood I saw many sets of "Quills." They were short reed

pipes, closed at one end, made from cane found in our Southern

canebrakes. The reed pipes were made closed at one end by being so cut

that the bottom of each was a node of the cane. These pipes were

"whittled" square with a jack knife and were then wedged into a wooden

frame, and the player blew them with his mouth. The "quills," or reed

pipes, were cut of such graduated lengths that they constituted the

Negro's peculiar music Scale. The music intervals though approximating

those of the Caucasian scale were not the same. At times, when in a

reminiscent humor, I hum to myself some little songs of my childhood. On

occasions, afterwards, I have "picked out" some of the same tunes on the

piano. When I have done this I have always felt like giving its

production on the piano the same greeting that I gave a friend who had

once worn a full beard but had shaved. My greeting was "Hello, friend A;

I came near not knowing you."

"Quills" were made in two sets. They were known as a "Little Set of

Quills" and a "Big Set of Quills." There were five reeds in the Little

Set but I do not know how many there were in a Big Set. I think there

were more than twice as many as in a Little Set. I have inserted a cut

of a Little Set of "Quills." (Figure I.) The fact that I was in the

class of "The Little Boy Who Couldn't Count Seven" when I saw and

handled quills makes it necessary to explain how it comes that I am sure

of the number of "Quills" in a "Little Set." I recall the intricate tune

that could be played only by the performer's putting in the lowest

pitched note with his voice. I am herewith presenting that tune, and

"blocking out" the voice note there are only five notes left, thus I

know there were five "Quills" in the set. I thought a tune played on a

"Big Set" might be of interest and so I am giving one of those also. If

there be those who would laugh at the crudity of "Quills" it might not

be amiss to remember in justice to the inventors that "Quills"

constitute a pipe organ in its most rudimentary form.

[Illustration: Figure I A LITTLE SET OF QUILLS]

TUNE PLAYED ON A LITTLE SET OF QUILLS

[music]

TUNE PLAYED ON A BIG SET OF QUILLS

[music]

The "tr'angle" or triangle mentioned as the other primitive instrument

used by the rabbit and fox in serenading King Deer's family was only the

U-shaped iron clives which with its pin was used for hitching horses to

a plow. The antebellum Negro often suspended this U-shaped clives by a

string and beat it with its pin along with the playing on "Quills" much

after the order that a drum is beaten. These crude instruments produced

music not of unpleasant strain and inspired the production of some of

the best Negro Rhymes.

I would next consider for a little the origin of the subject matter

found in Negro Rhymes. When the Negro sings "Master Is Six Feet One Way"

or "The Alabama Way" there is no question where the subject matter came

from. But when he sings of animals, calling them all "Brother" or

"Sister," and "Bought Me a Wife," etc., the origin of the conception and

subject matter is not so clear. I now come to the question: From whence

came such subject matter?

First of all, Mr. Joel Chandler Harris, in his introduction to "Nights

with Uncle Remus," has shown that the Negro stories of our country have

counterparts in the Kaffir Tales of Africa. He therefore leaves strong

grounds for inference that the American Negroes probably brought the dim

outlines of their Br'er Rabbit stories along with them when they came

from Africa. I have already pointed out that some of the Folk Rhymes

belong to these Br'er Rabbit stories. Since the origin of the subject

matter of one is the origin of the subject matter of the other, it

follows that we are reasonably sure of the origin of such Folk Rhymes

because of the "counterpart" data presented by Mr. Harris. But I have

been fortunate enough recently to secure direct evidence that one of the

American Negro stories recorded by Mr. Harris came from Africa.

While collecting our Rhymes, I asked Dr. C. C. Fuller of the South

African Mission, at Chikore, Melsetter, Rhodesia, Africa, for an African

Rhyme in Chindau. I might add parenthetically: I have never seen

pictures of a cruder or more primitive people than these people who

speak Chindau. He obtained and sent me the Rhyme "The Turkey Buzzard"

found in our Foreign Section. It was given to him by the Reverend J. E.

Hatch of the South African General Mission. Along with this rhyme came

the following in his kind and obliging letter: "We thought the story of

how the Crocodile got its scaly skin might be of interest also":

"Why the Crocodile Has a Hard, Scaly Skin."

"Long ago the Crocodile had a soft skin like that of the other animals.

He used to go far from the rivers and catch animals and children and by

so doing annoyed the people very much. So one day when he was far away

from water, they surrounded him and set the grass on fire on every side,

so that he could not escape to the river without passing through the

fire. The fire overtook him and scorched and seared his back, so that

from that day his skin has been hard and scaly, and he no longer goes

far from the rivers."

This is about as literal an outline of the American Negro story "Why the

Alligator's Back is Rough" as one could have. The slight difference is

that the direct African version mixes people in with the plot. This

along with Mr. Harris's evidences practically establishes the fact that

the Negro animal story outlines came with the Negroes themselves from

Africa and would also render it practically certain that many animal

rhymes came in the same way since these Rhymes in many cases accompany

the stories.

Then there are Rhymes, not animal Rhymes, which seem to carry plainly in

their thought content a probable African origin. In the Rhyme, "Bought

Me a Wife," there is not only the mentioning of buying a wife, but there

is the setting forth of feeding her along with guineas, chickens, etc.,

out under a tree. Such a conception does not fit in with American slave

life but does fit into widely prevailing conditions found in Africa.

Read the last stanza of "Ration Day," where the slave sings of going

after death to a land where there are trees that bear fritters and where

there are ponds of honey. Surely there is nothing in America to suggest

such thoughts, but such thoughts might have come from Africa where

natives gather their fruit from the bread tree and dip it into honey

gathered from the forests.

Read "When My Wife Dies." This is a Dance Rhyme Song. When the Rhymer

chants in seemingly light vein in our hearing that he will simply get

another wife when his wife dies, we turn away our faces in disgust, but

we turn back almost amazed when he announces in the immediately

succeeding lines that his heart will sorrow when she is gone because

none better has been created among women. The dance goes on and we

almost see grim Death himself smile as the Rhymer closes his Dance Song

with directions not to bury him deep, and to put bread in his hand and

molasses at his feet that he may eat on the way to the "Promised Land."

If you had asked a Negro boy in the days gone by what this Dance Rhyme

Song meant, he would have told you that he didn't know, that it was

simply an old song he had picked up from somewhere. Thus he would go

right along thoughtlessly singing or repeating and passing the Rhyme to

others. The dancing over the dead and the song which accompanied it

certainly had no place in American life. But do you ask where there was

such a place? Get Dr. William H. Sheppard's "Presbyterian Pioneers in

Congo" and read on page 136 the author's description of the behavior of

the Africans in Lukenga's Land on the day following the death of one of

their fellow tribesmen. It reads in part as follows: "The next day

friends from neighboring villages joined with these and in their best

clothes danced all day. These dances are to cheer up the bereaved family

and to run away evil spirits." Dr. Sheppard also tells us that in one of

the tribes in Africa where he labored, a kind of funnel was pushed down

into the grave and down this funnel food was dropped for the deceased to

feed upon. I have heard from other missionaries to other parts of Africa

similar accounts. The minute you suppose the Rhyme "When My Wife Dies"

to have had its origin in Africa, the whole thought content is

explained. Of course the stanza concerning the pickling of the bones in

alcohol is probably of American origin but I doubt not that the thought

of the "key verses" came from Africa.

These Rhymes whose thought content I have just discussed I consider only

illustrative of the many Rhymes whose thought drift came from Africa.

Many of the Folk Rhymes fall under the heading commonly denominated

"Nature Rhymes." By actual count more than a hundred and fifty recorded

by the writer have something in their stanzas concerning some animal. I

do not think the makers of these Rhymes were makers of Nature Rhymes in

the ordinary sense of the term. It would really be more to the point to

call them "Animal Rhymes" instead of "Nature Rhymes." With the exception

of about a half dozen Rhymes which mention some kind of tree or plant,

all the other Rhymes with Nature allusions pertain to animals. The Uncle

Remus stories recorded by Joel Chandler Harris are practically all

animal stories. I have said in my foregoing discussion that the Negro

communed with Nature and she gave him Rhymes for amusement. This is

true, but when we say "communed" we simply express a vague intangible

something the existence of which lives somewhere in a kind of mental

fiction.

Though I was brought up with the Rhymes I make no pretensions that I

really know why so many of them were made concerning the animal world. I

have heard no Negro tradition on this point. I have thought much on it

and I now beg the reader to walk with me over the peculiar paths along

which my mind has swept in its search for the truth of this mystery of

Animal Rhyme.

Before the great American Civil War the Negro slave preachers could

not, as a class, read and they were taught their Bible texts by white

men, commonly their owners. The texts taught them embraced most of the

central truths of our Bible. The subjects upon which the antebellum

Negro preached, however, were comparatively few. Of course a very few

antebellum Negro preachers could read. In case of these individuals

their texts and subjects were scarcely limited by the "lids" of the

Bible. I heard scores of these men preach in my childhood days.

The following subjects embrace about all those known to the average of

these slave preachers. 1. Joshua. 2. Samson. 3. The Ark. 4. Jacob. 5.

Pharaoh and Moses. 6. Daniel. 7. Ezekiel--vision of the valley of dry

bones. 8. Judgment Day. 9. Paul and Silas in jail. 10. Peter. 11. John's

vision on the Isle of Patmos. 12. Jesus Christ--his love and his

miracles. 13. "Servants, obey your Masters."

Now it is strange enough that the ignorant slave, while adopting his

Master's religious topics, refused to adopt his hymns and proceeded to

make his own songs and to cluster all these songs in thought around the

Bible subjects with which he was acquainted. If the reader will get

nearly any copy of Jubilee Songs he will find that the larger number

group themselves about Jesus Christ and the others cluster about Moses,

Daniel, Judgment Day, etc., subjects partially known and handled by the

preachers in their sermons. There is just one exception. There is no

Jubilee Song on "Servants, obey your Masters." We shall leave for the

"feeble" imagination of the reader the reason why. The Negroes

practically left out of their Jubilee Songs, Jeremiah, Job, Abraham,

Isaac, Solomon, Samuel, Ezra, Mark, Luke, John, James, The Psalms, The

Proverbs, etc., simply because these subjects did not fall among those

taught them as preaching subjects.

Now let us consider for a while the Negro's religion in Africa. Turning

to Bettanny's "The World's Religions" we learn the following facts about

aboriginal African worship.

The Bushmen worshiped a Caddis worm and an antelope (a species of deer).

The Damaras believed that they and all living creatures descended from a

kind of tree and they worshiped that tree. The Mulungu worshiped

alligators and lion-shaped idols. The Fantis considered snakes and many

other animals messengers of spirits. The Dahomans worshiped snakes, a

silk tree, a poison tree and a kind of ocean god whom they called Hu.

Now turning our attention to Negro Folk Rhymes we find them clustering

around the animals of aboriginal African Folk worship. The Negro stories

recorded by Mr. Harris center around these animals also. In the Folk

Rhyme "Walk Tom Wilson" our hero steps on an alligator. In "The Ark" the

lion almost breaks out of his enclosure of palings. In one rhyme the

snake is described as descended from the Devil and then the Devil

figures prominently in many Rhymes. Then we have "Green Oak Tree

Rocky-o" answering to the tree worship.

I have placed in our collection of Rhymes a small foreign section

including African Rhymes. I have recorded precious few but those few are

enough to show two things. (1) That the Negro of savage Africa has the

rhyme-making habit and probably has always had it, and thus the American

Negro brought this habit with him to America. (2) That a small handful

from darkest Africa contains stanzas on the owl, the frog, and the

turkey buzzard just like the American rhymes.

Knowing that the Negro made rhymes in Africa, and knowing that he

centered his Jubilee Song words around his American Christian religion,

is it not reasonable to suppose that he centered his secular or African

Rhymes around his African religion? He must have done so unless he

changed all his rhyme-making habits after coming to America, for he

certainly clustered his American verse largely around his religion.

Assuming this to be true the large amount of animal lore in Negro rhyme

and story is at once explained.

Possibly the greatest hindrance to one's coming to this conclusion is

the fact that the Rabbit and some other animals found in Negro rhyme and

story do not appear in the records among those worshiped by aboriginal

Africans. The known record of the Africans' early religion covers only a

very few pages. Christians have not been willing to spend any time to

speak of in investigating the religions of the primitive and the lowly.

Thus if these animals were widely worshiped it would not be strange if

we should never have heard of it. Let us consider what is known,

however.

Taking up the matter of the rabbit Mr. John McBride, Jr., had a very

fine and lengthy discussion on "Br'er Rabbit in the Folk Tales of the

Negro and other Races" in _The Sewanee Review_, April, 1911. On page 201

of that journal's issue we find these words: "Among the Hottentots, for

example, there is a story in which the hare appears in the moon and of

which several versions are extant. The story goes that the moon sent the

hare to the earth to inform men that, as she died away and rose again,

so should all men die and again come to life," etc. I drop the story

here because so much of it suffices my purpose. It brings out the fact

that the African here had probably truly considered the Rabbit as a

messenger of the moon. Now the fact that the Hottentots were thus

talking in lore of receiving messages concerning immortality from the

moon means there must have been at least a time in their history when

they considered the Moon a kind of super-being, a kind of god.

I quote again from Dr. Sheppard's "Presbyterian Pioneers in Congo," page

113. "King Lukenga offers up a sacrifice of a goat or lamb on every new

moon. The blood is sprinkled on a large idol in his own fetich house, in

the presence of all his counselors. This sacrifice is for the

healthfulness of all the King's country, for the crops," etc.

I think after considering the foregoing one will see that there are

those of Africa who connect their worship with the moon. We learn also

that there are those who claim the rabbit to be the moon's messenger.

From this, if we should accept the theory for Animal Rhymes advanced, we

would easily see why the rabbit as a messenger of a god or gods would

figure so largely in Rhyme and in story. We also would easily see how

and why as a messenger of a god he would become "Brother Rabbit." If one

will read the little Rhyme "Jaybird" he will notice that the rhymer

places the intelligence of the rabbit above his own. Our theory accounts

for this.

I would next consider the frog, but I imagine I hear the reader saying:

"That is not a beginning. How about your bear, terrapin, wolf, squirrel,

etc.?"

Seeing that I am faced by so large an array of animals, I beg the reader

to walk with me through just one more little path of thought and with

his consent I shall leave the matter there.

We see, in two of our African Rhymes, lines on a buzzard and an owl; yet

these African natives do not worship these birds. The American Negro

children of my childhood repeated Folk Rhymes concerning the rabbit, the

fox, etc., without any thought whatever of worshiping them. These

American children had received the whole through dim traditional rhymes

and stories and engaged in passing them on to others without any special

thought. The uncivilized and the unlettered hand down everything by word

of mouth. Religion, trades, superstition, medicine, sense, and nonsense

all flow in the same stream and from this stream all is drunk down

without question. If therefore the Negro's rhyme-clustering habit in

America was the same as it had ever been and the centering of rhymes

about animals is due to a former worship of them in Africa, the verses

would include not only the animals worshiped in modern Africa but in

ancient Africa. The verses would take in animals included in any

accepted African religion antedating the comparatively recent religions

found there.

The Bakuba tribe have a tradition of their origin. Quoting from Dr.

Sheppard's book again, page 114, we have the following: "From all the

information I can gather, they (the Bakuba) migrated from the far North,

crossed rivers and settled on the high table land." Here is one

tradition, standing as a guide post, with its hand pointing toward

Egypt. A one fact premise practically never forms a safe basis for a

conclusion, but when we couple this tradition with the fact that, so far

as we know, men originated in Southwest Asia and therefore probably came

into Africa by way of the Isthmus of Suez, I think the case of the

Bakuba hand pointing toward a near Egyptian residence a strong one. Now

turn to your Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. X, ninth edition, with

American revisions and additions, to the article on "Glass," page 647.

Near the bottom of the second column on that page we read: "The

Phoenicians probably derived this knowledge of the art (of glass making)

from Egypt. * * * It seems probable that the earliest products of the

industry of Phoenicia in the art of glass making are the colored beads

which have been found in almost all parts of Europe, in India, and other

parts of Asia, and in _Africa_. The "aggry" beads so much valued by the

_Ashantees and other natives_ of that part of Africa which lies near the

Gold Coast, have _probably_ the same origin. * * * Their wide dispersion

may be referred with much probability to their having been objects of

barter between the Phoenician merchants and the barbarous inhabitants of

the various countries with which they traded." Here are evidences, then,

that the African in his prehistoric days traded with somebody who

bartered in beads of Phoenician or Egyptian make. I say Egyptian or

Phoenician because if the Phoenicians got this art from the Egyptians I

think it would be very difficult for those who lived thousands of years

afterward to be sure in which country a specific bead was made, the art

as practiced by one country being a kind of copy of the art as practiced

in the other country. With the historic record that the Phoenicians were

the great traders of the Ancient World our writers attributed the

carrying of the beads into Africa, among the natives, to the

Phoenicians. Without questioning these time-honored conclusions, we do

know that Egyptian caravans still make journeys into the interior of

Africa for the purpose of trade. Shall we think this trading practice on

the part of Egypt in Africa one of recent origin or probably one that

runs back through the centuries? I see no reason for believing this

trading custom to be other than an ancient one. If the ancient Egyptians

traded with the surrounding Africans and these Africans gradually

migrated South, as is stated in the Bakuba tradition, the whole matter

of how all kinds of animals got mixed into Negro Folk Rhymes by custom

becomes clear. It also will explain how animal worship got scattered

throughout Africa, for it is the unbroken history of the world that

traders of a race superior in attainment always somehow manage to carry

along their religion to the race inferior in attainment. The religious

emissaries generally follow along in the wake of the traders. If we make

the assumption, on the foregoing grounds, that the very ancient African

Negro got in touch with the religion of Ancient Egypt, then the

appearance of the frog, birds, etc., in Negro Rhyme is explained, for if

we read the lists of animal gods of Ancient Egypt and the animal states

through which spirits were supposed to pass, we have no trouble finding

the list of animals extolled in Negro rhyme and story.

If Negro Rhyme has always centered about Negro religion, then when the

Negro was brought to America and began changing his religion, he should

have had some songs or rhymes on the dividing line between the old and

the new. In other words, there ought to be connecting links between

"secular" Folk Rhymes and Jubilee Songs, songs that by nature partake of

both types. This must happen in order to be in accord with the law of

the presence of connecting links where evolution produces a new type

from an old one. By using the procedure under Mendel's law of mating

like descendants from a cross between two and by eliminating those who

do not reproduce constant to the type which we are trying to produce, we

can produce a new and constant type in the third succeeding generation

of descendants.

Now the Negro slave turned quickly in America from heathenism to

Christianity. This was accomplished through white Christians correcting

and eliminating all thoughts and productions which hovered on the border

line between heathen ideals and Christianity. They used the Mendelian

procedure of eliminating all crosses that did not give a product with

Christian characteristics and thus necessarily eliminated Rhymes or

songs of the connecting link type. They did a good thorough job but the

writer believes he sees two connecting links that escaped their

sensitive ears and sharp eyes. They are Jubilee songs; one is "Keep

inching along like a poor inch worm, Jesus will come by-and-by," the

other is "Go chain the lion down before the Heaven doors close."

The reader will recall that I have already shown that the worm and the

lion were connected with native African worship. Of course we all know

quite well that a "Caddis worm" is not an "Inch worm," but for a man

trying to turn from the old to the new, from idolatry to Christianity, a

closer relation than this might not be very comfortable neutral ground.

The following Folk Rhymes found in our collection might also pass for

connecting links: "Jawbone," "Outrunning the Devil," "How to Get to

Glory Land," "The Ark," "Destinies of Good and Bad Children," "How to

Keep or Kill the Devil," "Ration Day," and "When My Wife Dies." The

superstitions of the Negro Rhymes are possibly only fossils left in one

way or another by ancient native African worship.

In a few Rhymes the vice of stealing is either laughed at, or

apparently laughed at. Such Rhymes carry on their face a strictly

American slave origin. An example is found in "Christmas Turkey." If one

asks how I know its origin to be American, the answer is that the native

African had no such thing as Christmas and turkeys are indigenous to

America. In explanation of the origin of these "stealing" Rhymes I would

say that it was never the Negro slave's viewpoint that his hard-earned

productions righteously belonged to another. His whole viewpoint in all

such cases, where he sang in this kind of verse, is well summed up in

the last two lines of this little Rhyme itself:

"I tuck mysef to my tucky roos',

An' I brung _my_ tucky home."

To the Negro it was his turkey. This was the Negro slave view and

accounts for the origin and evolution of such verse. We leave to others

a fair discussion of the ethics and a righteous conclusion; only asking

them in fairness to conduct the discussion in the light of slave

conditions and slave surroundings.

In a few of the Folk Rhymes one stanza will be found to be longer than

any of the others. Now as to the origin of this, in the case of those

sung whose tunes I happen to know, the long stanza was used as a kind

of chorus, while the other stanzas were used as song "verses." I

therefore think this is probably true in all cases. The reader will note

that the long stanza is written first in many cases. This is because the

Negro habitually begins his song with the Chorus, which is just the

opposite to the custom of the Caucasian who begins his ordinary songs

with the verse. This appears then to be the possible genesis of stanzas

of unequal length.

I have written this little treatise on the use, origin, and evolution of

the Negro Rhyme with much hesitation. I finally decided to do it only

because I thought a truthful statement of fact concerning Negro Folk

Rhymes might prove a help to those who are expert investigators in the

field of literature and who are in search of the origin of all Folk

literature and finally of all literature. The Negro being the last to

come to the bright light of civilization has given or probably will give

the last crop of Folk Rhymes. Human processes being largely the same, I

hope that my little personal knowledge of the Negro Rhymes may help

others in the other larger literary fields.

I am hoping that it may help and I am penning the last strokes to record

my sincere desire that it may in no way hinder.

GENERAL INDEX