ON THE TRAIL OF NEGRO FOLK-SONGS

Share page


	SONGS ABOUT ANIMALS	189
	Hoover would give at least practical, if not poetic, approval of the fragment sung by Anne Gilmer, wherein the lowly pig has his meed of mention. She learned it from Negroes at Orange, Texas. O-O-OH, SISTREN AN' BRED'REN


	O-o-oh, sistren an' bred'ren, Don't you think it is a sin For to go to .peel potatoes An' to cas' away de skin? De skin feeds de pigs, An' de pigs feeds you. O-o-oh, sistren an' bred'ren, Is not dat true ? Miss Gilmer says that the Negro rendition of this is dramatic. The O-o-oh should be wound up with circular motion of the hand. The cat appears less often in Negro folk-song than most of the "beasties," but does come in occasionally, as the "yaller cat" that Juba killed. The Cat Came Back is not a folk-song, but it is in oral circulation in the South, and has experienced some slight folk-changes. A shout-song from the Tidewater district of South Carolina, given by Miss Emilie Walters, mentions the various animals in rather curious fashion. The idea seems to be that the singer's feelings will not be hurt by any metaphor likening him to a lower creature.