Jamaican Song and Story Part 76

[Music: _1st Figure._

You worthless Becca Watson, You worthless Becca Watson, You worthless Becca Watson, You ought to been ashame.

Them write you name an' t'row it a pa.s.s, Them write you name an' t'row it a pa.s.s, Them write you name an' t'row it a pa.s.s, you ought to been ashame.]

A familiar tune, I think a mixture of two.

To write disparaging remarks on paper, which is then thrown in the "pa.s.s" (path, road), for anybody to pick up and read, is a common trick. The epithet "worthless" seems to imply that Becca was not altogether free from blame. They seldom say "bad." It is almost always "worthless."

CLx.x.xIII.

[Music: _5th Figure._

Since the waggonette come in Parker take to heart dead, Since the waggonette come in Parker take to heart dead.

Never mind conductor, Parker take to heart dead.

Never mind conductor, Parker take to heart dead.]

The reference is to a local enterprise, the Waggonette Company. It unfortunately failed, and the death of a person interested in its success, happening immediately after, is attributed to the failure.

For "come in" we should say "were taken off."

CLx.x.xIV.

[Music: _Schottische or 4th Figure._

Them Gar'n Town people them call me follow-line, Them Gar'n Town people them call me follow-line, Them Gar'n Town people them call me follow-line, Somebody dying here ev'ry day.

A ten pound order him kill me pardner, A ten pound order him kill me pardner, A ten pound order him kill me pardner For somebody dying here ev'ry day.

Den number nine tunnel I would not work d, Den number nine tunnel I would not work d, Den number nine tunnel I would not work d For somebody dying here ev'ry day.]

An incident, or perhaps it were better to say an accident, in the making of the road to Newcastle. A man who undertook a piece of contract work for 10 was killed by a falling stone. The so-called tunnels are cuttings. Number nine had a very bad reputation.

Gordon Town is a hamlet nine miles from Kingston. The driving road ends there, and access to the mountain district beyond is obtained only by mule tracks.

Strangers are called "follow-line" because, as they come down from their homes in the higher hills, they walk in strings. No Black man or woman ever goes alone if he can help it. He always. .h.i.tches on to somebody else, and the string increases in length as it pa.s.ses along.

This walking in Indian file is necessitated by the narrowness of the track, which is seldom wide enough for two to walk abreast.

The tune has the character of a march rather than of a dance, but I am a.s.sured it is used for a Schottische, which has a somewhat slower measure than a Polka, and for Fourth Figure. Their cleverness in adapting the same steps to different rhythms has been already commented on.

CLx.x.xV.

The last of our tragedies, a murder this time, is chronicled in:--

[Music: _2nd Figure._

Young gal in Jamaica take warning, Never leave your mother house alone, For that was the cause why Alice get her death while driving in the May Pen cyar.]

"The May Pen cyar" is a tramway which runs to May Pen, the cemetery of Kingston.

CLx.x.xVI.

[Music: _4th Figure._

Me no min d a concert the night When Martha an' Pompey catch a fight.

Da Martha da Pompey, Da Martha da Pompey catch a fight.]

"Me no min d," literally, "I not been there," I was not there. n.o.body hearing these words for the first time would ever suspect that they were English. People are always said to "catch fight" when they come to blows.

Few of the old cla.s.sical slave names like Pompey now survive.

CLx.x.xVII.

[Music: _1st Figure._

Complain complain complain, Complain about me one, Me daddy complain, me mahmy complain, Complain about me one.]

"Me one," _i.e._ "only me." Everlasting complaints, always about me!

(What child does not suffer in this way?) In Negro speech _complain_ stands for complaint as well as for the verb.

CLx.x.xVIII.

Elderly readers will recognise a popular song of thirty years ago in the following:--

[Music: _2nd Figure._

I can't walk on the bare road, cyart man, I can't walk at all; When I remember, When I remember, When I remember them.

Oh Captain Baker, I never can walk again, For when I remember the cyart man, cyart man, When I remember them.]