Jamaican Song and Story Part 67

Benigna[55] Field steals some coffee to get money to buy a silk dress to show off to the Gardon boys. (Gardon is a place, not a family.)

[Footnote 55: Other unusual girls' names are Ambrogine, Ateline, Irene, Melmorine. These rhyme with Queen. The same Italian _i_ is found in Elgiva, Seppelita, Barnita, Justina, and the English _i_ in Alvira, Marina. The next are all accented, like the last six, on the penultimate; Etilda, Iota, Clarista, Pastora, Barzella, Zedilla, Amanda, Agarta (evidently a variant of Agatha), Timinetia (like Polynesia), Cherryana, Indiana. Then there is Hettybel, and one girl has this astonishing combination--Ataria (rhymes with Samaria), Azadell (? Isabel).]

CXXV.

[Music: _5th Figure._

Fan me, soldier man, fan me; Fan me, soldier man, fan me; Fan me, soldier man, fan me oh!

Gal, you character gone!

Sake a ten shilling shahl, Sake a ten shilling shahl, Sake a ten shilling shahl oh!

Make me character gone.]

CXXVI.

[Music: _Schottische._

Manny Clark a you da man!

Manny Clark a you da man!

So so ride you ride a Ginger Piece, All the gal them a dead fe you.

Oh you take 'notta boil soup, take salt fish 'tick in it, Gal, you want fe come kill me?

Oh you take 'notta a boil soup, take salt fish 'tick in it, Gal, you want fe come kill me?]

Manny Clark, a popular player of dance tunes, goes to Ginger Piece and is overwhelmed with attentions by the girls. He addresses himself as follows:--"Manny Clark, you are the man! You just ride to Ginger Piece and all the girls are dying for you." Then, turning to one of them, he adds:--"Oh, you boil the soup with your best, taking Anatto and salt fish to stick into it. Do you want to kill me with kindness?"

Anatto gives a rich yellow colour to the soup. Salt fish (stockfish) is one of the princ.i.p.al articles of diet of the peasantry.

CXXVII.

[Music: _Schottische._

Bungo Moolatta, Bungo Moolatta, Who d go married you?

You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing, Who d go married you?

Me give you me shirt fe wash, You burn up me shirt with iron, You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing, Who d go married you?]

"You Bungo Mulatto, who is going to marry you? Your ring-bedecked fingers can't do anything. When I gave you my shirt to wash you burned it with an over-hot iron."

Bungo (rhymes with Mungo) means a rough uncivilized African.

A Mulatto is the child of two Brown parents, Brown being the offspring of Black and White. He has rather a yellow skin.

CXXVIII.

[Music: _5th Figure._

Bahl, Ada you must bahl, Bahl, Ada you must bahl, Bahl, Ada you must bahl, Ada you must bahl till the c.o.c.k say coocoocoocoory co.]

Ada has been naughty and has been shut up for a night in the dark. The poor little thing is "bawling," crying out in terror of the nameless horrors of the night.

CXXIX.

[Music: _2nd Figure._

Rise a roof in the morning, Rise a roof in the morning; Tell all the n.i.g.g.e.r them to come, come, come, Rise a roof in the morning.

The Monkey and the Baboon them was sitting on the wall, Rise a roof in the morning; I an' my wife cannot agree, Rise a roof in the morning.

She 'pread me bed on the dirty floor, Rise a roof in the morning; For Devil made the woman an' G.o.d made man, Rise a roof in the morning.]

"Rise a roof" seems to mean, as far as I can understand the explanation, "raise the roof"; as we might say, "row enough to blow the roof off."

"Baboon" always has this accent on the first syllable and a French _a_.

The Blacks do not mind calling themselves n.i.g.g.e.rs, but a White man must not call them so. To say "black nehgher" is an offence not to be forgiven. The word is used again quite kindly in the following:--

Cx.x.x.

[Music: _Jig._

Oh we went to the river an' we couldn' get across, We jump on the n.i.g.g.e.r back we think it was a horse.[56]

Then Stephen, Stephen, Stephen boy, Stephen, Stephen, poor Stephen!]

[Footnote 56: A last reminder to p.r.o.nounce "acrahss," "ha.r.s.e." The Negro rejects the sound _aw_ altogether and always changes it to _ah_.]

A party get to one of the bends of Four-and-twenty River, so called because the road crosses and recrosses it twenty-four times. Stephen carries them all over.