Jamaican Song and Story Part 5

=a wha' me tell you, etc.= What did I tell you? Did you not hear me tell you they were talking about you up here? A good phrase to ill.u.s.trate the use of the interjected =say=.

=Call you name=, mention your name.

=Monkey them=; another common addition.

=nothing name so=, nothing called so.

=a bearer.= Bearers are important people in the Jamaica hills where post-offices are few. They often bear nothing but a letter, though some carry loads too.

=Jack Mantora, etc.= All Annancy stories end with these or similar words. The Jack is a member of the company to whom the story is told, perhaps its princ.i.p.al member; and the narrator addresses him, and says: "I do not pick you out, Jack, or any of your companions, to be flogged as Tiger and Annancy were by the monkeys." Among the African tribes stories we know are often told with an object. The Negro is quick to seize a parable, and the point of a cunningly constructed story directed at an individual obnoxious to the reciter would not miss. So when the stories were merely told for diversion, it may have been thought good manners to say: "This story of mine is not aimed at any one."

II. YUNG-KYUM-PYUNG.

A King had t'ree daughter, but n.o.body in the world know their name.

All the learned man from all part of the eart' come to guess them name, an' no one could'n guess them.

Brother Annancy hear of it an' say:--"Me me I mus' have fe fin' them ya-ya gal name. Not a man can do it abbly no me."

So one day the King t'ree gal gone out to bathe, an' Brother Annancy make a pretty basket, an' put it in a the house where he knew they was going to come fe eat them vittle.

He leave it there, an' go under the house fe hear the name.

When them come, them see the basket, an' it was the prettiest something they ever see in their life.

Then the biggest one cry out:--

Yung-kyum-pyung! What a pretty basket!

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone! What a pretty basket!

And the next one say:--

Margaret-Powell-Alone! What a pretty basket!

Eggie-Law! What a pretty basket!

And the youngest bahl:--

Eggie-Law! What a pretty basket, eh?

Yung-kyum-pyung! What a pretty basket, eh?

Brother Annancy hear it all good, an' he glad so till him fly out a the house an' gone.

Him go an' make up a band of music with fiddle an' drum, an' give the musicians them a tune to sing the names to.

An' after a week him come back.

When him get where the King could yerry, him give out:--"Play up the music, play up the music."

So they play an' sing:--

[Music:

Yung-kyum-pyung Eggie-Law Marg'ret-Powell-Alone.]

After six times sing the Queen yerry.

She say:--"Who is that calling my daughter name?"

Annancy tell them fe play all the better.

Then the Queen ma.s.soo himself from up'tairs, an' t'row down broke him neck.

Dat time de King no yerry, so Annancy harder to play de music still.

At last the King yerry, an' him say:--"Who is dat, calling me daughter name?"

Annancy let them sing the tune over and over:--

[Music:

Yung-kyum-pyung Eggie-Law Marg'ret-Powell-Alone.]

An' the King t'row himself off a him t'rone an' lie there 'tiff dead.

Then Annancy go up an' take the t'rone, an' marry the youngest daughter an' a reign.

Annancy is the wickedest King ever reign. Sometime him dere, sometime him gone run 'pon him rope an tief cow fe him wife.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Me, me I mus' have, etc.=, I will find out those girls' names. Anybody else would have said:--"Me mus' have fe find them ya (those here) gal name," but Annancy likes to add a few more syllables. His speech is =Bungo talk=. The Jamaican looks down on the Bungo (rhymes with Mungo) who "no 'peak good English."

=abbly no me=, except me.

=go under the house.= It is no absurdity to the narrator's mind to picture the King's house on the pattern of his own. This is a two-roomed hut, consisting of the hall or dining-room and a bedroom.

It is floored with inch-thick cedar boards roughly cut and planed, so that they never lie very close. An air s.p.a.ce is left underneath, and anybody who creeps under the hut can hear all that goes on above.

=bahl=, bawl.

=hear it all good=, hears everything perfectly.

=Play up the music.= He almost sings, like this:--