AFTERWORD
I HATE to say good-bye to this book. Writing the last words in it would be a downright grief, if it were not for the fact that I am planning several — oh, perhaps many I — more volumes on Negro folk-songs, and am already deep in the material for them. There is so much fascinating stuff that could not be crowded into this collection, that I had to begin on the other groupings before these pages were finished. I shall be tremendously grateful to any reader of this book who will send me the words, or music, or both, of any song he may know or may be energetic enough to chase down. I recommend the pursuit of songs as a reducing exercise — and high good fun in the bargain. One may get a song almost anywhere, under any circumstances, if he is in earnest about it. I persuaded Arthur Guiter-man to chant softly for me a folk-song at a dignified dinner of the Poetry Society once, while I caught it on the menu card. A few weeks ago I enjoyed a tuneful musical comedy with William Alexander Percy, but the songs I heard between acts were better still, Negro songs that Mr. Percy sang quietly, for me to take down on a programme. Cale Young Rice gave me one in an aside at a dinner at the Columbia Faculty Club one evening. I met DuBose and Dorothy Heywood at tea at Hervey Allen's this spring, when they mentioned a rare specimen of Gullah dialect picked up in Charleston — the chant of "OP Egypt a-yowlin' " howling in a lonesome graveyard. I begged to hear it, of course. They were modestly reluctant to howl in public at a tea, but they at last consented. It was extraordinary.
I have learned that you must snatch a song when you hear of it, for if you let the singer get away, the opportunity is gone. He will promise to write it down for you later, but that "later" rarely comes. Meanwhile, he is subject to all the chances of a perilous worlds where he may be killed on any street corner, taking the song with him. No, the instant present is the only surety. Songs die, too, as well as people, so that the only surety of life extension is to write them down at once.
I hope that I may some time spend a sabbatical year loitering down through the South on the trail of more Negro folk-songs, before the material vanishes forever, killed by the Victrola, the Radio,the lure of cheap printed music. I envy the leisured rich who could take such a tour — yet never do. Why does not some millionaire endow a folk-song research? Surely the world would sing his praises!
I wish that more of our colleges and universities would take active interest in folk-song. Harvard has done more than any institution to encourage research, and the preservation of folk-lore among us, and it is impossible to estimate the debt that we owe to Professor Kittredge for the inspiration he has given to students and collectors throughout the country. Years ago Harvard gave John A. Lomax a travelling fellowship for the collection of cowboy songs, and has given Robert Gordon a similar appointment for research next year. Mr. Gordon expects to tour America in a hunt for folk-song of any kind available, and his quest will no doubt result in the gathering of much that will be of permanent value. The Texas Folk-lore Society is a lively and ambitious body, with several admirable volumes to its credit. The Virginia branch has collected many ballads, and the West Virginia organization has recently seen the results of its efforts brought together in John Harrington Cox's book, Folk-Songs of the South. The North Carolina Folk-lore Society has made a very large collection, and Professor Reed Smith is about to bring out a South Carolina collection. In other sections there is interest, but a general stimulus is needed if the material is to be collected in time and preserved.
DuBose Heywood tells of the work that the Charleston group is doing, in teaching the Negro children their racial songs. The white people go to the plantations, where they learn the authentic songs, and then teach them orally to the colored children — not writing them down at all, for they feel that oral transmission is the true method for folk-songs. The Sabbath Glee Club of Richmond, a band of colored singers, is doing an excellent work in preserving the old songs. Women's clubs throughout the South would do well to take up this important work before it is too late.
Some of the Negro colleges, as Fisk, Hampton, Tuskegee, and others, are doing valiant work along this line. Talley, of Fisk, has an extremely interesting book, Negro Folk Rhymes, and there are various collections of spirituals. But the possibilities are only touched as yet.
Of late there is awakened interest in Negro problems of education and service. Carnegie Hall was packed to the doors one evening not long ago with an audience eager to hear the glee clubs of Hampton and Tuskegee sing the old songs, and to listen to a plea for support to extend the usefulness of these great institutions.
The Negro's interest in the creation of his own literature and music is quickening, too. Recently I served as a judge in a short-story contest held by the Negro magazine Opportunity for the benefit of young Negro writers. About one hundred and twenty-five stories were submitted, coming from all parts of the country, many of them excellent in material or treatment. Among young Negroes of to-day there are capable novelists, poets, short-story writers, editors, as well as gifted musicians. Now that they have received a chance at technical training, the Negroes — who have produced the largest and most significant body of folk-song created in America — are writing their own poetry and music of a high order. They are genuine poets — "makers." We should encourage their newer art, as well as help to preserve the precious folk-songs of the past.
The songs in this collection have aroused interest among many types of people. Europeans, who are closer to folk-art than are Americans, have been enthusiastic about them. Zuloaga was so pleased with them when he heard Miss Gulledge sing some of them one afternoon at my apartment, that he sat down on the piano bench beside her to follow them more closely, while Uranga smiled his pleasure. Stefannson said of the music, "It's a good show."
I have given informal talks on my quest for songs before various bodies — the Modern Language Association, the Poetry Society of America, the Graduate Women's English Club of Columbia University, the Dixie Club of New York City, the Texas Club of New York, and others. The audience is always vastly more interested in the songs themselves, as sung by Miss Gulledge, than in my report of them, which is as it should be. The songs are the vital things.
My friends and acquaintances recognize that my particular form of insanity is on the subject of Negro folk-songs, and so they amiably humor my aberrations. Some of them are interested themselves, and when we get together we make ballads hum. Not long ago a group of us were together in Constance Lindsay Skinner's apartment, discussing the topic. Margaret Widdemer and Louise Driscoll had sung some of the old English ballads, and I mentioned the Negro's part in transmitting the traditional songs. Muna Lee gave me a variant of the Hangman's Tree, as sung by the Negroes in Hinds County, Mississippi. Her poet-husband, Senor Louis Marin, laughingly contended that she had only one tune, to which she sang all the songs she knew. I confess that the tune she used was not the traditional one, but the words were in the line of tradition.
Hangman, hangman, wait a while,
Wait a little while. Yonder comes my father — he
Has travelled many a weary mile.
"Father, father; did you bring
The diamond ring to set me free? Or did you come to see me hung Upon this lonesome tree? "
"No, no. I did not bring
The diamond ring to set you free; But I come to see you hung Upon this lonesome tree."
The other relatives follow in order, and then the last hope appears.
"Sweetheart, sweetheart, did you bring," etc.
"Yes, yes, I did bring
The diamond ring to set you free. I did not come to see you hung Upon this lonesome tree."
Clement Wood (who sings Negro songs delightfully in his lectures on Negro literature) gave me some fragments.
Down in de place whar I come from
Dey feed dose coons on hard-parched cawn;
Dey swell up an' dey get so fat
Dat dey could n't get deir heads in a Number Ten hat.
The chorus to this is the well-known You Shall Be Free.
Another bit that Mr. Wood gave is about a character that figures often in folk-lore, but less often in Negro folk-song:
Did you ever see de devil Wid his hoe and pick and shovel Jus' a; scratchm* up de ground At his oV front do'?
That is from John Wyatt, a Negro peddler, seventy years old, from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The lines are like some I learned in Texas years ago from Dr. John T. Harrington:
Did you ever see de devil Wid his iron wooden shovel Tearin' up de yearth Wid his big toe-nail?
Professor Kittredge sent me some data about several of the songs, too late to include it easily in the earlier chapters, so I list it here. He writes of one song, Cree-mo-Cri-mo-Doro-Wak:
You're quite right as to the "antique nonsense jingle" character of this. See evidence in the Journal of American Folk-lore, xxxv, 396 (my note on Frog and Mouse). The Waco text ("'way down South") is a variety of the minstrel song discussed on page 399 of same volume. Copy of one version enclosed:
Keemo Kimo1
Celebrated Banjo Song
The only Authentic Version, as sung at George Christy and Wood's Minstrels. (Copyright secured.)
In South Carolina the darkies go,2
Sing song Kitty, can't you ki me 0! Dat's whar de white folks plant de tow,
Sing (&c.) Cover de ground all over wid smoke,
Sing (&c.) And up de darkies' heads dey poke,
Sing (&c).
Chorus: — Keemo kimo, dar, Oh whar! Wid my hi, my ho, and in come Sally singing Sometimes penny winkle, lingtum nipcat Sing song Kitty, can't you ki me 0!
Milk in de dairy nine days old,
Sing (&c.) Frogs and de skeeters getting mighty bold,
Sing (&c.) Dey try for to sleep, but it ain't no use,
Sing (&c.) Dey jump all round in de chicken roost,
Sing (&c.)
Chorus: — (as before.)
Dar was a frog liv'd near a pool,
Sing (&c.) Sure he was de biggest fool,
Sing (&c.)
[1] George Christy & Wood's New Song Book, N. Y., cop. 1854, pp. 7, 8. The same, with music, also in sheet form, cop. 1854.
[2] Go is an error for grow.
For he could dance and he could sing,
Sing (&c.) And make de woods around him ring,
Sing (&c.)
Chorus: — (as before.)
Of one of the children's game-songs, Professor Kittredge notes:
Mr, Banks he loves sugar, etc. A good bit of this song is certainly from the white folks. Cf. Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, ist ed., 1842, p. n:
Over the water, over the lee, Over the water to Charley. Charley loves good ale and wine, Charley loves good brandy, Charley loves a little girl As sweet as sugar candy.
There are varieties in plenty. Here is a version which my mother (born in Massachusetts in 1822) gave me about 1887 as known to her when a girl:
Charley, will you come out to-night?
You know we 're always ready. When you come in, take off your hat, And say, "How do y' do, Miss Betty!"
Charley loves good cake and wine, Charley loves good brandy, Charley loves to kiss the girls As sweet as sugar candy.
My aunt (about the same time) gave me a variant of the last two lines (known also to my mother):
Take your petticoats under your arm And cross the river to Charley.
For another jingle that refers to the Pretender Charley, see Newell, Games and Songs, ist ed., no. 121.
/ Had a Little Rooster is an old white ditty.
Zaccheus. Cf. the rhyme in the New England Primer:
Zaccheus he Did climb a tree His Lord to see.
This I have often heard quoted by old people in New England.
Shoo Fly is a minstrel song. I well remember its popularity.
Come, Butter, Come! This is an old English butter charm. See the following version from Ady's book, A Candle in the Dark, 1659, p. $8, as quoted in Brand's Popular Antiquities, Hazlitt's ed., iii, 268:
Come Butter, come, Come Butter, come, Peter stands at the Gate, Waiting for a buttered Cake; Come Butter, come.
Ady says that the old woman who recited it said that it was taught to her mother "by a learned Church-man in Queen Marie's days!"
Professor Kittredge tells me that the Creation song, as given by Dr. Merle St. Croix Wright, was a famous minstrel piece, and not a real folk-song, as was also the case with the Monkey7s Wedding and Shoo Fly.
This overlapping of minstrel-and folk-song is a very interesting aspect of this study of folk-song. Of course, many pieces thought to be authentic folk-songs are undoubtedly of minstrel origin, no matter how sincere the collector may be in his belief that they are genuine folk-material. On the other hand, may not folk-singing and change make a folk-song out of what was originally a minstrel-song? And certainly there are cases where the folk-song came first — where the folk-song was taken over in whole or in part and adapted to the minstrel stage. Jump, Jim Crow was a fragment of folksong and dance before it was put on the stage and made popular as a minstrel-song. Casey Jones was a genuine Negro song before it became popularized by being changed and published. 'Tain't Gwine to Rain No Mo7 was a well-known Negro song, widely sung before the printed version brought it to the North.
Some aspiring scholar might write his doctor's dissertation on the inter-relation between folk-song and minstrel-song. That is only one of many aspects of the subject which might be carefully studied.
This has been, in truth, a folk-composition, for I have had the aid of numberless people in getting together the songs. For the material included in this volume, as well as for that which I have on hand to use in later volumes, I am indebted for help of one sort or another, direct or indirect, in the matter of information about sources, permission to quote from other collections (in a few cases), for inspiration and encouragement, as for words and music, to many persons. This research could not possibly have been carried on without such kindly assistance, and I am deeply grateful for it. The following is a list (I fear incomplete) of those who have aided me;
My heaviest debt of gratitude is to my friend, Ola Lee Gulledge, bachelor of music and professional pianist of Texas and New York, who has been invaluable in taking down the music and putting it in shape. I am under great obligations to Professor George Lyman Kittredge, who has read the proof of the book and given me helpful information and illuminating advice. I am indebted to Professor Ashley BL Thorndike, Professor James C. Egbert, and Professor Hyder E. Rollins for encouragement and assistance in the preparation of the book.
Others who have aided me are: Emily Abbott, Reverend and Mrs. E. P. Aldredge, Hervey Allen, Irl Allison, Roberta Anderson, Professor A. J. Armstrong, W. H. Babcock, Lottie Barnes, Mrs. Tom Bartlett, Reverend William E. Barton, Mr. and Mrs. O. Douglas Batchelor, Alvin Belden, Professor Frank Boas, Kate Langley Bosher, Dr. Boyd, Mary Boyd, Judge W. R. Boyd, Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Boyd, Jr., Arelia Brooks, Mary Louise Brown, Mrs. Cam-milla Breazeale, Hershell Brickel, Mrs. Buie, Dr. Prince Burroughs, Early Busby, Jacques Busbee, Juliana Busbee, the late George W. Cable, John Caldwell, Mary Stevenson Callcott, Betsy Camp, Dr. and Mrs. Charles C. Carroll, Dorothy and Virginia Carroll, Mrs. Harvey Carroll, Albert Cassedy, The Century Company, Central Texas College, of Waco, Texas, Mabel Cranfill, Dr. J. B. Crannll, Mrs. Crawford, Robert A. Crump, Irvin Cobb, Mrs. Lucian H. Cocke, Mayor Cockrell, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Mrs. Cockrell, Miss Isabel Cohen, Lizzie W, Coleman, Professor John Harrington Cox, Charity Danne, Loraine Darby, Mrs. Landon Randolph Dashiell, Mrs. De La Rose, the late Samuel A. Derieux, Mrs. George Deynoodt, Elizabeth* Dickinson, Reverend J. G. Dickinson, Harris Dickson, Judge Diggs, Mrs. D. M. Diggst the Director of the Colored Y. M. C. A. in Fort Worth, Texas, Louis Dodge, Mr. Dowd, W. E. Doyle, Mr. and Mrs. Sparke Durham, Harry Stillwell Edwards, Garnet Laidlaw Eskew, John Farrar, Jean Feild, Harriet Fitts, Virginia Fitzgerald, Betty Foley, Clare Virginia Forrest, Maximilian Foster, Maud Fuller, Charles Galloway, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gamble, Louise Garwood, Anne Gilmer, Meta Glass, Mr. Robert Gordon, Dorothy Van Doren, Hilton Greer, Lydia Gumbel, Louise Haight, Norman W. Harlee, Harper and Bros., Dr. J. T. Harrington, Isabel Harris, Will Harris, W. C. Handy, Albert Hart, Mrs. Hatchell, Mrs. Cammie G. Henry, Dorothy and DuBose Hey-wood, Worth Tuttle Hedden, of New York, Ruth Hibbard, Lucy Hicks, Mrs. Esther Finlay Hoevey, Hatcher Hughes, H. B. P. Johnson, Betty Jones, W. A. Jones, Professor W. A. Kern, JustinKimball, Leslie Lee Lacy, Mrs. J. O. La Rose, Lucy T. Latane, Maude Scarborough Latham, H. S. Latham, Louise Laurense, Muna Lee, Lippincott's Magazine, John A. Lomax, Thomas A. Long, Katherine Love, Esther Mackey, Talmadge Marsh, Sebron Mallard, Morton Adams Marshall, George Madden Martin, Mrs. W. D. Martin, Dr. F. C. McConnell, Dr. and Mrs. George W. McDaniel, Anna Hardaman Meade, Bertha Merion, Professor J. C. Metcalf, Mrs. Miller, Lincolnia C. Morgan, Dr. W. F. Moore, John Trotwood Moore, James Morrow, Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton, Glenn Mul-lin, ex-Governor Pat. M. Neff, Caroline Newcomb, William Wells Newell, Ella Oatman, Professor Howard W. Odum, Mrs. Clifton Oliver, the late Thomas Nelson Page, Josephine Pankey, Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas, Arthur Peavy, Louree Peeples, William Alexander Percy, Professor E. C. Perrow, Clara Gottschalk Peterson, Anna Gwinn Pickens, Professor Louise Pound, Louise Clark Pyrnelle, Mrs. C. E. Railing, Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Ratcliffe, Dorothy Renick, Cale Young Rice, Caroline Richardson, Mrs. M. L. Riddle, the late Sally Nelson Robins, Crystal Ross, Lucy Pinckney Rut-ledge, Earl Saffold, Frances Sanford, Anne Scarborough, Mr. and Mrs, W. B. Scarborough, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Culpepper Scarborough, Dr. Shaw, Mr. Robert Sibley, Mrs. Henry Simpson, the late Professor C. Alphonso Smith, Mrs. A. J. Smith, Howard Snyder, John Stone, Elizabeth Sullivan, Edwin Swain, Professor and Mrs. W. H. Thomas, Mrs. Richard Clough Thompson, Roy W. Tibbs, Dr. J. W. Torbett, Drushia Torbett, Gladys Torregano, Joseph A. Turner, Worth Tuttle, Lucy Dickinson Uiquhart, Lois Upshaw, Benjamin Vaughan, Isabel Walker, Emilie Walter, Olive Watkins, Shepherd Webb, W. P. Webb, Decca West, Catherine West, Dr. Blanche Colton Williams, Marguerite Wilkinson, Evelyn Cary Williams, the late J. H. Williams, Louise Williams, Dr. Sidney Williams, Professor Wirt Williams, Professor Samuel Woflle, Francis Gilchrist Wood, Matthew Work, the late Dr. Merle St. Croix Wright, the late Dr. John C. Wyeth.