ON THE TRAIL OF NEGRO FOLK-SONGS

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	154	NEGRO FOLK-SONGS
	Joe cut off his big toe And hung it up to dry. All de gals began to laugh An' Joe began to cry. Rock de cradle, Rock de cradle, Rock de cradle, Joe. The first four lines of the second stanza were sung in Texas also, for I have heard them from my mother in my childhood. She had learned them from the colored children on her father's plantation. Betsy Camp, of Franklin, Virginia, sang the following nonsense stanza, as remembered from the singing of old Negroes on her father's place. One can imagine a sleepy child rousing up to hear a noise, and soothed to slumber by this droning chant: WHO DAT?


	Who dat tappin' at de window? Who dat knockin' at de do? Mammy tappin⁵ at de window, Pappy knockin' at de do'. Two Creole slumber-songs, as sung by the Negroes in the Creole patois, that quaint speech of the Louisiana Negroes under French influence, were given me by Creole ladies in New Orleans, Mrs. J. O. La Rose and Mrs. Deynoodt.
	Fais Do Do, Minette Fais do do, Minette, Chere pitit cochon du laite. Fais do do, mo chere pitit, Jusqu'a trappe l'&ge quinze ans. Quand quinze ans a pale couri, M'o pale marie vous avec monsieur le martine.