ON THE TRAIL OF NEGRO FOLK-SONGS

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	218 NEGRO FOLK-SONGS Thought I fell in — ten foot o' water, — Thought I fell in — ten foot o' water, — Thought I fell in — ten foot o' water, — Over my head, — over my head. — Jay bird sat on — a hick'ry limb, — Jay bird sat on — a hick'ry limb, — Jay bird sat on — a hick'ry limb, — Over my head, — over my head. — Jean Feild, of Richmond, gives a work-song she has heard from Virginia Negroes: WORK-SONG Help me drive 'er,— Help me drive ^Jer, — Help me drive 'er, — uh, home! — Little Mary, — Little Mary, — Little Mary, — uh, home! — To de mountain, — To de mountain, — To de mountain, — uh, home! — The most famous of these work-songs is a ballad relating the exploits and the fate of one "John Henry." Tradition among the Negroes has it that the hero of this was a big, handsome Negro, a steel-driver on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. He did his work with sledge and hand-drill, and resented the intrusion of machines to compete with hand work. He boasted that he could work faster than any steam-driller, and won in the contest staged, but died as he laid down his triumphant hammer. John Harrington Cox has made a study of the origin and variants of this ballad, the results of which are found in his volume, "Folk-Songs of the South," which the Harvard University Press has just issued. His researches have yielded extremely valuable material, re-