Jamaican Song and Story Part 56

See how superior this truly Jamaican form is:--

[Music:

Oh! me yerry news, me yerry, Oh! me yerry news, me yerry, Married homan a pull him ring me yerry Him put ahm a wine-gla.s.s me yerry Oh! me yerry news me yerry.]

Local scandal again. "I hear news; a married woman has pulled off her wedding ring and put it in a wine-gla.s.s," the first convenient receptacle she saw.

LXVII.

It was some time before an explanation was forthcoming for the next:

[Music:

Jes' so me barn, jes' so me barn, you can weary long boot, jes' so me barn.]

The words mean:--"I was born just so; you can wear long boots, boots that come high up the leg." A girl, who has not money enough to buy boots, is envious of a companion who is wearing them. She says:--"I was born, just as you were, poor. Yet you have got long boots, while I must put up with 'bulldogs,' rope-soled slippers. Where did you get the money to pay for your boots? Did you tief it, or what?"

LXVIII.

In the example that follows, a girl has been left to look after her little brother, and somebody reports that she has been "ill-treating,"

_i.e._ beating him. So the message is sent back:--

[Music:

Tell Mary say, no do Johnny so.

Oh!

Tell Mary say, no do Johnny so.]

"Tell Mary she is not to do Johnny so." "To do a person something" is to do them an injury. "He so crahss" (cross), a boy will say of his master, "and I done him nothing," or "I never do him one def ting," a single thing. "Def" is emphatic, but is not a "swear-word."

"Say" is often added in places where it is not at all wanted. It occurs again in:--

LXIX.

[Music:

Me tell them gal a Portlan' Gap Min' Dallas man oh!

me amber h!

me amber h!

me amber ho! tell them say.]

"I tell the girls at Portland Gap 'Mind Dallas men.'" Portland Gap is in the Blue Mountains; Dallas in the Port Royal Mountains between the Blue Mountains and the sea.

(The exclamatory "h" has the Italian vowel, hard for some English ears to catch. It is nearly but not quite "hay.")

The significance of "amber" is lost. This word occurs again in the pleasant flowing melody which stands next, and the boy who gave it me explained its meaning quite correctly, saying it "stood for yellow."

LXX.

[Music:

Gold oh! Gold oh! Gold amber gold oh!

Gold d a me yard oh! Gold amber gold oh!

Sell doubloon a joint oh! Gold amber gold oh!

fe me gold a sunlight gold! Gold amber gold oh!

fe me gold no copper gold! Gold amber gold oh!]

"Gold is in my yard," perhaps buried, but also perhaps in the house, yard often including it. "My gold is sunlight gold, none of your rascally copper stuff."

The doubloon is a large gold piece worth sixty-four s.h.i.+llings. It has long been out of use and few people in Jamaica have seen one.

("Fe me," for me, often does duty for "my." "This a fe me hoe," this is my hoe; "take fe you panicle," take your panicle, the tin mug out of which the morning sugar-water is drunk.)

LXXI.

No. 71, "Gee oh John Tom" is a brisk and vigorous sing till it gets to "a me la.s.sie gone" where the little tinge of sadness is given by simple means, again the right thing in the right place, good art.

[Music:

Gee oh Mother Mac, Gee oh John Tom; Gee oh Mother Mac, Gee oh John Tom; a me la.s.sie gone, Gee oh John Tom.]

LXXII.