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NEGRO FOLK-SONGS |
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"Yes, mistis, I is been a powerful sinner in mah day. But bress de Lawd, Fse got religion in time!"
"Don't you remember them?"
He fixed an eye of rebuke upon me. "Yes, mistis, I knows dem. But I ain' gwine backslide by talkin' 'bout 'em. Ef you wants 'reels' you'll have to go hunt up some o' dem young sinner folks. Not me, naw, not me!"
There was an old woman in Mississippi, almost a hundred years old, who said:
"Honey, I'se got one foot in de grabe. I'se done made mah peace wid Hebben. You ain' want me to draw back now, is you?"
In some sections, the church leaders tried to compromise with the desire to dance by encouraging "shouts," which were spirited, religious marchings or dancings in the church, to be indulged in by the irrepressible young and tolerated by the elders. This is an expression of the same spirit which substituted the song-games for dancing, among the whites, whose old play-party songs still have a lusty vitality in outlying districts.
Some of the dances were so simple that they could be danced without the aid of instruments. All that was needed was someone to "pat and sing," to mark the rhythmic time by clapping of the hands. Even the reptiles knew those measures, for does n't the song-fragment tell us
As I come 'long de new-cut road, Met Mister Terrapin and Mister Toad. De Toad begin to pat an' sing, While Terrapin cut de pigeon-wing.
One of the best known of the simple old dances was Juba, the tune of which is so elemental that it has practically but two notes — no more. The late Dr. John A. Wyeth gave me the air to this, and the words were sent in by various contributors.
JUBA
Ju - ba dis an' Ju - ba dat, Ju - ba kill a yal - ler cat;
Ju - ba up an' Ju - ba down, Ju-ba run-ning all a-round. |
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