Jamaican Song and Story Part 61

It will be understood that these tunes are sung antiphonally. In this one the leaders, who know the tune and words well, sing the first four bars and the next four belong to the chorus, after which the leaders take it up again, and so on.

There is an opportunity here for a little harmless "chaff" about colour. The diamond chosen is a _black_ diamond, the blacker the better. The ring forms round him joining hands, and one girl is pushed in to look for the Sambo boy. She says:--"I look, I am looking, I don't find a Sambo boy" (_i.e._ a quarter black). At last she finds her diamond, either the boy inside the ring or one of those who circle round him, and they dance together, wheeling and letting go hands at the words "wheel," "let go."

"Why" is an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, probably the same as Hi!

XCIII.

Another chorus tune of the same kind is:--

[Music:

The gal over yonder carry banana, gal oh! gal oh! carry banana.

A nine-hand banana, carry banana, a Chiney banana, carry banana.

You find the banana? carry banana.

You tief the banana? carry banana.]

The girl is supposed to be carrying a bunch of bananas on her head, and the singers are commenting upon it and asking the girl questions, as they do here at a distance of half-a-mile. "Look! It is a nine-hand banana. No, a China banana. Did you find it? Did you steal it?"

Banana bunches are reckoned by the number of hands they contain, the separate bananas being called fingers. Nine-hand is a convenient market size. The China banana is a stout low kind which withstands wind: the fruit is, however, coa.r.s.e.

The signal for taking a partner is given by the words "You find the banana?"

XCIV.

In the next there is no dancing. The ring closes up tight, shoulder to shoulder. Hands behind the back pa.s.s the ball round and round, and the girl inside the ring tries to find it. The person with whom it is found has to go into the ring and turn seeker.

[Music:

Pa.s.s the ball an' the ball goin' round, the ball goin' round an' the key can't find, Mother, honey, oh! the ball goin' round.

Journey, ball, journey, ball, journey, ball, journey, Mother, honey, oh! the ball can't find.]

The conventional "gwine" for "going" hardly represents it, only the _o_ is p.r.o.nounced so short that the word becomes practically one syllable. In the dance tunes we shall come across the word "dying"

shortened in the same way.

XCV.

A variation of this is obtained by putting a ring on a cord and sliding it along. The tune is:--

[Music:

Me los' me gold ring fin' an' gi' me, Me los' me gold ring fin' an' gi' me, Me los' me gold ring fin' an' gi' me, A me husband gold ring fin' an' gi' me.]

XCVI.

In "Mother Phoebe" again there is no dancing:--

[Music:

Old moder Phoebe, how happy you be When you sit under the Jinniper tree, oh the Jinniper tree so sweet.

Take this old hat an' keep your head warm, Three an' four kisses will do you no harm, It will do a great good fe you.]

Here the girl inside the ring takes a hat or cap and after several feints puts it on somebody's head, and that person has then to take her place in the ring.

XCVII.

More lively is the joyous:--

[Music:

Do, do, do, do, do, Deggy, Deggy house a go burn down, do, De Gay.

Deggy wh you would a do d do, De Gay?

Deggy dood an' doodess do, De Gay.

Deggy go roun', Deggy do Degay.

An' a cutchy fe Deggy do Degay, an' a wheel an' let go do, De Gay.

Deggy house a burn down do, De Gay.]

The boy inside the ring "makes all sort of flourish," dancing and posturing by himself. The word "cutchy" is accompanied by a deep curtsey, on rising from which he takes a girl out of the ring and wheels her. Deggy or Degay, has occurred already in No. LVII. Whether it is his own house that is burning, or somebody else's, it is impossible to conjecture. Observe the varying accent on the name. In taking down this song I first wrote "doodan doodess," thinking they were nonsense words suggested by the repet.i.tion of do, do, do, but on asking further about them was told that "dood" is a "risky beau-man,"

a smart well-dressed young fellow. So it is the American "dude" and its female counterpart "dudess" which here take the place of the usual "gal and boy."

XCVIII.

The latter we find in:

[Music: