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.