ON THE TRAIL OF NEGRO FOLK-SONGS

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	104 NEGRO FOLK-SONGS Miss Jean Feild reports a variant. LULA GAL



	Jawbone walk and a jawbone talk, Jawbone eat with a knife and fork. Lef ma jawbone in de cawnah ob de fence, An* I hab not seen ma jawbone sence. Chorus Lula gal, Lula gal, Lula gal, Lula gal, Tie ma shoe, boy, tie ma shoe. Tie ma shoe, boy, tie ma shoe. This gruesome instrument, whose crude music livened many a country dance, is mentioned in various songs. The versatile darky, deprived of instruments that others use, could contrive his own, which gave him vast pleasure though they could not satisfy his music-loving soul. Other instruments were bones held between the different ringers of one hand and rattled with gay lugubriousness. Then, lacking anything else, a Negro could draw wailful music from a comb covered with tissue paper, which he used as a mouth instrument. These were used until recently — and may still be found, as I have often heard music of bones and comb. A well-known dance-song of the old times was Josey or JimA-long, Josey, which I have often heard my mother sing. My cousin, Mrs. E. H. Ratchliffe, of Natchez, Mississippi, also gave me a part of the version given below.