Jamaican Song and Story Part 25

An' everybody say "Yes."

An' that time the boy was a fiddler, an' he tune up his violin an'

beguns to play "My iddy, my iddy Pyang halee."

Gaulin say:--"Oh no, my brother, stop that tune. That same very tune kill my grandfather, an' when you sing it you let me remember my old grandfather."

An' the boy never stop sing an' play till all Gaulin clothes drop off.

An' Gaulin fly out the door mouth an' find himself right up in the air.

An' from that day that's what make Gaulin fly so high.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Gaulin=, the Egret. In stormy weather the egrets leave the seaside and fly up into the country to fish in the streams. They are especially fond of the small crabs which abound in the mountain rivulets. The words of the song have been spelt so as to convey as nearly as possible their right sound. =Halee= rhymes in both syllables to the =stali= of the Venetian gondolier. =Jewahlee= is =Jubilee= with a different middle syllable. =Pyang= with French =a= made as short as possible is the Egret's cry. It should be accented and brought out strongly.

=When him goes home back=, as he was going home.

=white gentleman.= This counts many points in the estimation of the Negro.

=Rabbit spend a little time.= Most characteristic. After the rebuff one would have expected him to go away at once, but that is not the Negro's way. He is never abashed, and after the curtest refusal of any favour he has come to ask, will sit on and talk of other things, finally taking his leave as if nothing had happened.

=bus=, the buggies which ply for hire in Kingston are so called.

=Wednesday=, the favourite day for weddings. The bridegroom is accompanied to church by a G.o.dmother, not the baptismal one but another specially appointed for the occasion.[45] They ride to church, which is usually at some distance from the yard. The bride also rides from her yard, accompanied by a G.o.dfather and two bridesmaids between the ages of eight and eleven. The ceremony and signing of the register over, the newly-wedded couple mount and gallop to the wife's yard, the rest of the company following more leisurely. Arrived there, the bride proceeds to put on her wedding-clothes and the guests are received by the G.o.dfather and given sugar-water and bread. When the bride has donned her satin gown and veil (she was married in her riding-habit) and with much sorrow pinched her feet into white shoes too small for them, the company sit down to the cake table. This has upon it two cakes, two fantastically fashioned loaves of shewbread, triumphs of the baker's art with their doves and true lovers' knots, and three vases of cut flowers. The bread is not eaten then but is distributed (_distribbled_, as they have it,) to friends on the days following the wedding. One cake is cut. A knife and fork being handed to a bridesmaid she takes off the cake-head, which is a small top tier or addition to the cake proper. This is put aside and afterwards sent to the officiating minister. The G.o.dfather then proceeds to the more serious work of cutting up the cake, giving pieces first to the bride and bridegroom and then to the guests. The second cake is left intact.

Wine is poured out, and there are speeches and toasts and hymns. Then follows dinner, which is over about five o'clock. They then begin to play _Sally Water_ (see introduction to the Ring tunes) which goes on for an hour or two, and as night falls dancing is started. This goes on all night and does not end, at the earliest, till dusk on the following day, Thursday. It is often kept up until Friday evening or even until Sat.u.r.day, the dancers and musicians appearing to require no rest. The latter are well supplied with rum and when they get sleepy they beg for an extra tot to rub their eyes, which burns them and keeps them awake. The whole of this time refreshments are supplied to the guests, and as long as these hold out they do not disperse, or as they put it:--"till hungry bite them they no go 'way."

[Footnote 45: Is this a survival of the African inst.i.tution of "sureties" (Yao, _ngoswe_, see Duff Macdonald, I. 118), or "sponsors,"

who arrange the marriage? I am not sure whether the custom exists among Negro as well as Bantu tribes. (A.W.)]

The Sunday after the wedding is 'turn t'anks (return thanks). The married couple and their friends get all the beasts, _i.e._ horses and mules, they can muster, and ride to church dressed in their best. The bride and bridegroom, attended by the G.o.dfather and G.o.dmother, sit in "couple bench," the rest of the party going to their own pews. After service the whole cavalcade gallops as hard as it can, regardless of the precipices which skirt all Jamaica mountain paths, up hill and down hill to the husband's yard. There wine is provided, and the second cake is cut and eaten. Dinner follows at three, and then _Sally Water_ is again played until midnight, when dancing recommences and goes on till four or five o'clock on Monday afternoon. This is the end of the festivities, which sometimes cost twenty pounds or more.

=provide for him=, prepared himself.

=door mouth= includes not only the opening, but also the whole s.p.a.ce just outside the door.

XXV. ANNANCY, MONKEY AND TIGER.

One day Annancy an' Tiger get in a rum-shop, drink an' drink, an' then Monkey commence to boast. Monkey was a great boaster.

Annancy say:--"You boast well; I wonder if you have sense as how you boast."

Monkey say:--"Get 'way you foolish fellah you, can come an' ask me if me have sense. You go t'rough de whole world you never see a man again have the sense I have."

Annancy say:--"Bro'er Monkey, how many sense you have, tell me?"

Monkey say:--"I have dem so till I can't count dem to you, for dem d all over me body."

Annancy say:--"Me no have much, only two, one fe me an' one fe me friend."

One day Monkey was travelling an' was going to pa.s.s where Tiger live.

Annancy was working on that same road.

As Monkey pa.s.sing, Tiger was into a stone-hole an' jump out on the fellah an' catch him. All his sense was gone, no sense to let him get 'way. Tiger was so glad, have him before him well ready to kill.

Here come the clever man Mr. Annancy.

When he saw his friend Monkey in the hand of such a wicked man he was frighten, but he is going to use his sense.

He said:--"Marnin', Bro'er Tiger, I see you catch dat fellah; I was so glad to see you hold him so close in hand. You must eat him now. But before you eat him take you two hand an' cover you face an' kneel down with you face up to Ma.s.sa G.o.d an' say, 'T'ank G.o.d fe what I goin' to receive.'"

An' so Tiger do.

An' by the time Tiger open his eyes Monkey an' Annancy was gone.

When they get to a distant Annancy said to Monkey:--"T'ink you say you have sense all over you 'kin, why you no been get 'way when Bro'er Tiger catch you?"

Monkey don't have nothing to say.

Annancy say:--"Me no tell you say me have two sense, one fe me an' one fe me friend? Well! a him me use to-day."

From that day Tiger hate Annancy up to now.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=can come and ask me=, that can come. The ellipsis is best explained by giving the sentence another turn: "Get away you man who are so foolish that you can come," etc.

=into a stone-hole=, in a cave.

=Tiger was so glad, etc.=, Tiger was well pleased and held him in his paws all ready for killing.

=why you no been=, why didn't you.

=a him me use=, that is the one I used.