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SONGS ABOUT ANIMALS |
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'Long come de elephant, Noah, says he, "You're drunk." "Oh, no sir," said de elephant. "I'se stopped to pack my trunk."
The domestic animals come in for their share of attention also in Negro folk-songs. The horse, the mule, the dog, the cat, the pig, and so forth are celebrated suitably in song. Familiarity breeds not contempt, but comradeship, it would seem, and surely "critters" would render service more willingly if the songs sung in their presence, or to them, were about them as well.
John Trotwood Moore, of Nashville, Tennessee, contributes an ancient fragment about an old grey horse — not the famous "ole grey horse" that came "tearin' out o' de wilderness, down in Ala-bam'," but another, obviously from Tennessee.
Come down to Tennessee
(Ride er ole grey horse). Yaller gal's de gal for me
(Ride er ole grey horse). Kiss her under de mulberry tree
(Ride er ole grey horse). Oh my, Nigger, don't you see, Better come to Tennessee?
The old grey horse from Alabam' had his match in the mare of similar color and speed, sung of in certain quarters.
The old grey mare come a-tearin' out o' the wilderness, Tearin' out o' the wilderness, Tearin' out o' the wilderness.
The old grey mare come a-tearin' out o' the wilderness, Down in Alabam'.
The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be, She ain't what she used to be, She ain't what she used to be. The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be, Down in Alabam'.
Douglas Batchelor, formerly of North Carolina, insists that the old grey horse he knew came "trottin"' out of the wilderness; but maybe horses in North Carolina are less speedy. I have been told that army men have added stanzas to this "old grey mare," which no one seems willing to give me. |
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