Jamaican Song and Story Part 73

We never go far without meeting some story about petty thieving:--

[Music: _5th Figure._

Oh Jilly oh! how you manage a jump the window?

Oh Jilly oh! how you manage a jump the window?

Doctor Clark a one an' tanner, Major Black a two an' six, Mister Nelson three an' six, How you manage a jump the window?]

Jilly had been "tiefing" money and made her escape by jumping out of window. "Tanner," for sixpence, is common in English slang but not here. It seems to have been derived in this case from the White soldiers at Newcastle.

CLXIV.

[Music: _5th Figure._

James Brown, you mahmy call you.

James Brown a shake him shoulder.

Sake a the young gal b.u.t.terdore, James Brown a shake him shoulder.]

To express dissent they do not shake their heads but wriggle the whole of their bodies. It is a most expressive action.

A b.u.t.terdore, more properly b.u.t.ter-dough, is a kind of cake.

CLXV.

The next repeats the idea of No. CXVIII., but in the mouth of a girl.

[Music: _4th Figure._

When I go home I will tell me mumma say, When I go home I will tell me mumma say, When I go home I will tell me mumma say That the boy in the country love me very much.]

CLXVI.

The next is the only example of pure fiction that I have met with:--

[Music: _5th Figure._

Feather, feather, feather, Baby da born with feather.

You cut off the fowl head an' boil it in a 'tew-pan, Baby da born with feather.

Feather, feather oh!

Baby da born with feather.

Feather, feather oh!

Baby da born with feather.

You cut off the fowl head an' boil it with the feather, So the baby go born with feather.

I hear the news as I re'ch to Hagley Gap, Say baby da born with feather.

Something me never hear, Something me never hear that Baby can born with feather.

Something me never hear, Something me never hear that Baby can born with feather.]

All the other sings are chronicles of true events, and it is an exceptional case to find one purely the offspring of imagination like this one. The compiler of the words could not get quite free of actuality; he puts in Hagley Gap, which is the name of a pa.s.s through the hills. I once asked why it was so called and was told because it was a hugly place. The cooking described savours of Obeah.

CLXVII.

[Music: _2nd Figure._

When the rain an' the breeze an' the storm an' the sun I never see a man like Quaco Sam, He live in the sun as well as the rain, I never see a man like Quaco Sam.

Quaco Sam was a little bit a man, I never see a man like a Quaco Sam, For he never build a house but he live as any man, I never see a funny man as Quaco Sam.]

CLXVIII.

[Music: _5th Figure._

Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully; Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully; Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully; 'cratch me back, me will make one shirt fe you fe you.

Anch a bite me, Anch a bite me, Anch a bite me, Anch a bite me, Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully; 'cratch me back me will make one shirt fe you.]

Small black ants often swarm on the orange-trees, and the pickers, who do not use ladders but climb the branches, get covered with them. We all know that place in the "gully" or furrow of the back which we cannot reach ourselves.

CLXIX.

[Music: _4th Figure._

Me know one gal a Cross Road, Name of Lucy Banker, Him boil the long long cabbage bush, Him go long like a sailor nanchor.

Follow me, follow me, You no see wh the gal a follow me, Follow me, then follow me, You no see wh the gal a follow me.]

The story of the foregoing sing is this:--Lucy asked a fiddler and his friend to breakfast. The cooking was bad. The boiled bananas, which should have been light brown, were black, and the cabbage was not done enough, so that it was ropy or "long," as they aptly describe it. For these shortcomings the fiddler "put her a sing," _i.e._ put her into a sing.