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NEGRO FOLK-SONGS |
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"seven-up" in the first stanza of the song given below, one might fancy it a possible atavistic throw-back. But African jungles did not know that lively game, so far as we have any information, so this must be a more modern poem. It is a Creole song sent to me by Worth Tuttle Hedden, who got it from Maude Fuller, of Straight College, New Orleans.
The Monkey and the Baboon
The monkey and the baboon Playing seven-up. The monkey won the money And was scared to pick it up.
The monkey and the baboon Running a race. The monkey fell down And skint his face.
The monkey and the baboon Climbed a tree. The monkey flung a cocoanut Right at me!
A couple of other monkey fragments, tantalizing in their incompleteness, were given me by Mary Stevenson Callcott, of Texas.
Monkey married the baboon's sister, Smacked his lips and then he kissed her. Kissed so hard he raised a blister* She set up a yell.
What do you think the bride was dressed in? Green gauze veil and white glass breast-pin. |
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Monkey sitting on the end of a rail, Picking his teeth with the end of his tail.
A general assembly of the wild animals is made in a song about Noah and his roll-call in the Ark. "Norah" and his Ark are familiar and fond themes to the folk-songster, and we see countless variations on the situation. But in this particular " arkaic " ditty, the emphasis is on the animals rather than on Noah, or his household, or his labors in constructing his famous vessel. |
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