424
The Happy Coon
Dr. White notes on tlie manuscript: "Looks to me very much like
a product of the later minstrels (ca. 1900-10) which may pass into
folk-possession as the 1840 minstrel songs often did." He prints
a version from Florida, ANFS 222.
'The Happy Coon.' Obtained by Julian P. Boyd in 1927 from Jeannette
Tingle, one of his pupils in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county.
I I've seen in my time some mighty funny things.
But the funniest of all I know
Is a colored individual, just as sho' as you is ho'n.
And he's black as any crow.
' The manuscript has "would" in the first line and "who" in tlie ninth;
clearly errors for "won't" and "you," respectively.
15 L A C K F A C K M I N S T K K I. , X E C K O SO X (; S 5 1 I
2 You may talk till ^-ou're tired, hut you'll never i;et a word
From this very queer old coon.
He's knock-kneed, double-jointed, pigeon-toed.
And he's happy when he whistles his tune.
3 He whistles in the daw in the morn, in the ni^ht ;
And he whistles like the devil goin' to l)ed.
He whistles like a locomotive engine in his sleep;
And he whistled when his wife was dead.
4 One day a nigger hit him in the moiuh with a hrick.
His mouth swelled up like a big balloon.
Still, he went around the very next day,
And he whistled his merrv tune.