Jamaican Song and Story Part 18

When the boy going home, him took up his sing with the flute:--

[Music:

Old lady you too love dance, turn dem, Old lady you too love dance, turn dem, Turn dem make dem lay, turn dem, Turn dem make dem lay, turn dem.]

An' when the old lady hear the sing she beguns to dance an' wheel until she tumble off the rock an' dead.

An' Annancy becomes the master of the field until now.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

A rock would be a bad place for a field. Her house was on a rock probably, and her field or provision-ground elsewhere. For Provision-grounds and their contents see Digging-Sings.

=old-witch.= Join these words as closely as possible wherever they occur.

=Fe-We-Hall.= Very humble houses are called So-and-so Castle and So-and-so Hall. =Fe we=, for us, our. He was John of our Hall.

=destroy=, take away, so that they are lost to the owner and destroyed as far as she is concerned.

=out the hall=, out in the hall.

=breakfast=, the princ.i.p.al repast of the day at twelve o'clock.

=the man is here.= They delight in this enigmatic language. Annancy speaks of himself. He sends word that the man here (himself) is more clever than her (the old lady). Straightforwardness is a quality which the Negro absolutely lacks. If you try to get at the truth of any story he brings, and cross-question him upon it, he will shuffle and change it little by little, and you cannot fix him to any point.

Language with him is truly, as the cynic said, the art of disguising thought.

=chanice=, more usually =chalice=, challenge.

Boys constantly carry their musical instruments about with them. The Flute, a cheap kind of fife, and the Concertina are the favourites.

They play as they walk along the road.

The tune, which is quick, is sung over and over and gets uproariously and deliriously merry; gasps on an inward breath, which there is no time to take properly, doing duty for some of the notes.

The words are fragments of a song referring to fowls and eggs. It runs:--

Mother Bonner me hen a lay, turn dem, Them a lay t'ree time a day, turn dem, Turn dem make dem lay, turn dem.

XVII. MAN-CROW.[42]

[Footnote 42: Cf. the story of "Rombas" in Duff Macdonald's _Africana_ II., which would seem to have reached Africa through the Portuguese.

Rombas kills the whale which has swallowed the girl, and removes the tongue. (A.W.)]

Once there was a bird in the wood name Man-crow, an' the world was in darkness because of that bird.

So the King offer thousands of pounds to kill him to make the world in light again.

An' the King have t'ree daughter, an' he promise that, if anyone kill Man-crow, he will make them a very rich man an' give one of his daughter to marry.

So t'ousands of soldiers go in the wood to kill Man-crow. An' they found him on one of the tallest trees in the woods. An' no one could kill him, an' they come home back.

So there was a little yawzy fellah call Soliday.

An' he say to his grandmother:--"Gran'mother I am very poor. I am going in the wood to see if I can kill Man-crow."

An' the grandmother answer:--"Tche, boy, you better go sleep a fireside than you go to the wood fe go dead."

"Gran'mother, I goin' to town fe buy six bow an' arrow."

So he went to Kingston an' bought them.

An' when him return home he ask his grandmother to get six Johnny-cake roast, an' he put it in his namsack, an' he travel in the wood.

He s'arch until he find the spot a place where Man-crow is, an' he see Man-crow to the highest part of the tree.

An' he call to him with this song:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow, Good marnin' to you, Man-crow, Good marnin' to you, Man-crow, How are you this marnin'?]

An' the bird answer:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Soliday, Good marnin' to you, Soliday, Good marnin' to you, Soliday, How are you this marnin'?]

An' Soliday shot with his arrow at Man-crow an' two of his feather come out.

An' Man-crow come down to the second bough.

An' Soliday sing again:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow, Good marnin' to you, Man-crow, Good marnin' to you, Man-crow, How are you this marnin'?]

An' Man-crow answer as before:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Soliday, Good marnin' to you, Soliday, Good marnin' to you, Soliday, How are you this marnin'?]