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Read Ebook: Negro Folk Rhymes Wise and Otherwise: With a Study by Talley Thomas Washington
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Ebook has 933 lines and 94222 words, and 19 pages
Transcriber's Note: Other than the minor corrections and changes listed at the end of this text, all spelling and punctuation is as it appeared in the original. Musical notations appearing in the original book have been replaced with . The placement of footnote markers was irregular in the original--this has been retained.
NEGRO FOLK RHYMES
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK ? BOSTON ? CHICAGO ? DALLAS ATLANTA ? SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON ? BOMBAY ? CALCUTTA MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO
WITH A STUDY
BY THOMAS W. TALLEY, OF FISK UNIVERSITY
New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
Being the expression of a race in, or just emerging from bondage, these songs may at first seem to some readers trivial and almost wholly devoid of literary merit. In phraseology they may appear crude, lacking in that elegance and finish ordinarily associated with poetic excellence; in imagery they are at times exceedingly winter-starved, mediocre, common, drab, scarcely ever rising above the unhappy environment of the singers. The outlook upon life and nature is, for the most part, one of imaginative simplicity and child-like na?vet?; superstitions crowd in upon a worldly wisdom that is elementary, practical, and obvious; and a warped and crooked human nature, developed and fostered by circumstances, shows frequently through the lines. What else might be expected? At the time when these rhymes were in process of being created the conditions under which the American Negro lived and labored were not calculated to inspire him with a desire for the highest artistic expression. Restricted, cramped, bound in unwilling servitude, he looked about him in his miserable little world to see whatever of the beautiful or happy he might find; that which he discovered is pathetically slight, but, such as it is, it served to keep alive his stunted artist-soul under the most adverse circumstances. He saw the sweet pinks under a blue sky, or observed the fading violets and the roses that fall, as he passed to a tryst under the oak trees of a forest, and wrought these things into his songs of love and tenderness. Friendless and otherwise without companionship he lived in imagination with the beasts and birds of the great out-of-doors; he knew personally Mr. Coon, Brother Rabbit, Mr. 'Possum and their associates of the wild; Judge Buzzard and Sister Turkey appealed to his fancy as offering material for what he supposed to be poetic treatment. Wherever he might find anything in his lowly position which seemed to him truly useful or beautiful, he seized upon it and wove about it the sweetest song he could sing. The result is not so much poetry of a high order as a valuable illustration of the persistence of artist-impulses even in slavery.
In some of these folk-songs, however, may be found certain qualities which give them dignity and worth. They are, when properly presented, rhythmical to the point of perfection. I myself have heard many of them chanted with and without the accompaniment of clapping hands, stamping feet, and swaying bodies. Unfortunately a large part of their liquid melody and flexibility of movement is lost through confinement in cold print; but when they are heard from a distance on quiet summer nights or clear Southern mornings, even the most fastidious ear is satisfied with the rhythmic pulse of them. That pathos of the Negro character which can never be quite adequately caught in words or transcribed in music is then augmented and intensified by the peculiar quality of the Negro voice, rich in overtones, quavering, weird, cadenced, throbbing with the sufferings of a race. Or perhaps that well-developed sense of humor which has, for more than a century, made ancestral sorrows bearable finds fuller expression in the lilting turn of a note than in the flashes of wit which abundantly enliven the pages of this volume. There is one lyric in particular which, in evident sincerity of feeling, simple and unaffected grace, and regularity of form, appeals to me as having intrinsic literary value:
She hug' me, an' she kiss' me, She wrung my han' an' cried. She said I wus de sweetes' thing Dat ever lived or died.
She hug' me an' she kiss' me. Oh Heaben! De touch o' her han'! She said I wus de puttiest thing In de shape o' mortal man.
I told her dat I love' her, Dat my love wus bed-cord strong; Den I axed her w'en she'd have me, An' she jes' say, "Go 'long!"
Yes, my ole Mosser promise' me; But "his papers" didn't leave me free. A dose of pizen he'pped 'im along. May de Devil preach 'is f?ner'l song.
The manner of this conclusion is strikingly like that of the Scottish ballad, "Edward,"
The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir, Mither, Mither, The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir, Sic counseils ye gave to me O.
In both a story of cruelty is suggested in a single artistic line and ended with startling, dramatic abruptness.
In fact, these two songs probably had their ultimate origin in not widely dissimilar types of illiterate, unsophisticated human society. Professor Talley's "Study in Negro Folk Rhymes," appended to this volume of songs, is illuminating. One may not be disposed to accept without considerable modification his theories entire; still his account from personal, first-hand knowledge of the beginnings and possible evolution of certain rhymes in this collection is apparently authentic. Here we have again, in the nineteenth century, the record of a singing, dancing people creating by a process approximating communal authorship a mass of verse embodying tribal memories, ancestral superstitions, and racial wisdom handed down from generation to generation through oral tradition. These are genuine folk-songs--lyrics, ballads, rhymes--in which are crystallized the thought and feeling, the universally shared lore of a folk. Recent theorizers on poetic origins who would insist upon individual as opposed to community authorship of certain types of song-narrative might do well to consider Professor Talley's characteristic study. And students of comparative literature who love to recreate the life of a tribe or nation from its song and story will discover in this collection a mine of interesting material.
WALTER CLYDE CURRY.
Vanderbilt University, September 30, 1921.
PART I
NEGRO FOLK RHYMES
DANCE RHYME SECTION
JONAH'S BAND PARTY
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! "Han's up sixteen! Circle to de right! We's gwine to git big eatin's here to-night."
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! "Raise yo' right foot, kick it up high, Knock dat Mobile Buck in de eye."
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! "Stan' up, flat foot, Jump dem Bars! Karo back'ards lak a train o' kyars."
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'! "Dance 'round, Mistiss, show 'em de p'int; Dat Nigger don't know how to Coonjaint."
These are dance steps. For explanation read the Study in Negro Folk Rhymes.
LOVE IS JUST A THING OF FANCY
Love is jes a thing o' fancy, Beauty's jes a blossom; If you wants to git y?' finger bit, Stick it at a 'possum.
Beauty, it's jes skin deep; Ugly, it's to de bone. Beauty, it'll jes fade 'way; But Ugly'll h?l' 'er own.
STILL WATER CREEK
'Way down yon'er on Still Water Creek, I got stalded an' stayed a week. I see'd Injun Puddin and Punkin pie, But de black cat stick 'em in de yaller cat's eye.
'Way down yon'er on Still Water Creek, De Niggers grows up some ten or twelve feet. Dey goes to bed but dere hain't no use, Caze deir feet sticks out fer de chickens t' roost.
I got hongry on Still Water Creek, De mud to de hub an' de hoss britchin weak. I stewed bullfrog chitlins, baked polecat pie; If I goes back dar, I sh?'s gwine to die.
'POSSUM UP THE GUM STUMP
'Possum up de gum stump, Dat raccoon in de holler; Twis' 'im out, an' git 'im down, An' I'll gin you a half a doller.
'Possum up de gum stump, Yes, cooney in de holler; A pretty gal down my house Jes as fat as she can waller.
'Possum up de gum stump, His jaws is black an' dirty; To come an' kiss you, pretty gal, I'd run lak a gobbler tucky.
'Possum up de gum stump, A good man's hard to f?n'; You'd better love me, pretty gal, You'll git de yudder k?n'.
JOE AND MALINDA JANE
Ole Joe jes swore upon 'is life He'd make Merlindy Jane 'is wife. W'en she hear 'im up 'is love an' tell, She jumped in a bar'l o' mussel shell. She scrape 'er back till de skin come off. Nex' day she die wid de Whoopin' Cough.
WALK, TALK, CHICKEN WITH YOUR HEAD PECKED!
Walk, talk, chicken wid y?' head pecked! You can crow w'en youse been dead. Walk, talk, chicken wid y?' head pecked! You can h?l' high y?' bloody head.
You's whooped dat Blue Hen's Chicken, You's beat 'im at his game. If dere's some fedders on him, Fer dat you's not to blame.
Walk, talk, chicken wid y?' head pecked! You beat ole Johnny Blue! Walk, talk, chicken wid y?' head pecked! Say: "Cock-a-doo-dle-doo--!"
TAILS
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