Jamaican Song and Story Part 58

LXXVIII.

Sambo, that we had just now, is the shortest of bobbins. Here we have a long one of four bars.

[Music:

Wh mumma d?

Wh mumma d oh?

Come go da 'tation, you see mumma d; Him take half a day, him a work seven dollar, Come go da 'tation you see mumma d.]

Mamma has got into trouble, owing to a failing unhappily too common in Jamaica, inability to distinguish between what is mine and what is yours. Her pay for half a day was a "bit" (fourpence halfpenny) and she has managed to "work" (sarcastic use of the word, for it means to get by working) seven dollars--twenty-eight shillings--and has been taken to the police station.

"Wh mumma d," literally, "where mamma is?" This has been already noted as the usual form of question. The vowel in wh, d, is the French __. We have the sound in English in the words, _debt_, _west_ and many others, but we always make it very short, and when it is lengthened, as it should be here, it generally changes in English mouths to the _a_ of _date_, _waste_, which is wrong.

The C sharp on the word "d" is peculiar and striking.

The second "d" stands for "there."

LXXIX.

There is something pleasantly simple and nave about the planting-sing:--

[Music:

Toady, Toady, min' you'self, min' you'self make I plant me corn; plant me corn fe go plant me peas, plant me peas fe go court me gal, court me gal fe go show mumma, mumma de one a go tell me yes, puppa de one a go tell me no; Toady, Toady, min' you'self, min' you'self make I plant me corn.]

"Mind yourself, little Toad, let me plant my corn." So sings the boy as he brings down his digger with a forcible thrust. The digger has been described as an earth-chisel, and a very good description it is.

It makes a long slit in the ground into which the maize grains or peas are dropped. Maize is always known as "corn." Peas, which are also called Red Peas, are the "beans" of America, familiar at home under the name of French beans. We eat them not only green in the usual way, but also make excellent soup of the dried ripe beans. The boy is thinking of the reward of his labour. "I am planting my corn. Some will be eaten green, some left to ripen. That will be sold. Then I shall buy peas, plant them, and when they are ready for market get sixpence a quart for them, if I am lucky. Then I shall be rich enough to walk with a girl. I shall pick out a nice one that mamma will approve of. She will be the one to say 'yes, me son,' but puppa always crabbed, and him going to tell me no bodder with it, gal too much expense."

Lx.x.x.

When known details run dry, the following gives full play to the inventive faculty:--

[Music:

Me know the man oh! know the man, Name John Watson, know the man; him come from Bread Lane, know the man; him ride one grey mule, know the man; the mule name Vic oh! know the man; him have one tumpa toe, know the man; him come a Mister Thomson, know the man, fe go sell him grey mule, know the man; he no make no sale oh! know the man, me know the man, know the man.[50]]

[Footnote 50: "The" always tends to the p.r.o.nunciation "de," but it has not been thought advisable to write it so as this might render it liable to confusion with "d," meaning "is," with its differently sounded vowel. Moreover, it is not quite a true _d_, but has a pretty lisping sound intermediate between _th_ and _d_.]

Other bars of this air have an inclination to 2/4 time besides those indicated.

It will be observed that repeat marks have only been put to the first sing. It was not considered necessary to continue them. The various "turnings" of the tunes may be put in any order. The negroes themselves never put them twice in the same sequence.

Lx.x.xI.

[Music:

Minnie, Minnie, me los' me boar; Minnie, Minnie, me los' me boar; Minnie, Minnie, him a broke-foot boar; Minnie, Minnie, me los' me boar; Minnie, Minnie, and a blind-eye boar; Minnie, Minnie, go find you boar, Minnie, Minnie.]

"I have lost my boar, Minnie. He's a broken-legged boar and has got a blind eye," and so on through all the defects or excellences that a boar might, could, should or would have.

There could not be a greater contrast to this sombre "Minnie" than the gay:--

Lx.x.xII.

[Music:

You want to yerry Duppy talk oh!

Come go da river before day, an' you will yerry them laugh oh!

Come go da river before day; You want to yerry Duppy talk oh!

Come go da river before day.]

"If you want to hear Duppy talk, go to the river before day."

Lx.x.xIII.

Now the colour question crops up again. The Sambo lady, it may be remembered, wanted a white man and nothing but a white man. Sarah can do with a Sambo man, from which we may infer that Sarah was black.

[Music:

Oh me know Sarah, me know Sarah; Sarah love white man, me know Sarah; Sarah want Sambo man, me know Sarah; Sarah no want black man, me know Sarah.]

Lx.x.xIV.