Jamaican Song and Story Part 74

CLXX.

[Music: _Schottische._

Moons.h.i.+ne baby, don't you cry, Mumma will bring somet'ing fe you, Some fe you, Some fe me, Fe we go boil wi' dirty pot.]

This is a hit at another careless cook who had disregarded the time-honoured rule, "First wash your pot."

A moons.h.i.+ne baby is a pretty baby.

CLXXI.

[Music: _2nd Figure._

I have a news to tell you all about the Mowitahl men,[59]

Time is harder ev'ry day an' harder yet to come.

They made a dance on Friday night an' failed to pay the drummer, Say that they all was need of money to buy up their August pork.

Don't let them go free, drummer!

Don't let them go free, drummer!

For your finger cost money to tickle the poor goat-'kin.

Not if the pork even purchase self Take it away for your labour, For your finger cost money to tickle the poor goat-'kin.]

[Footnote 59: Mowitahl = Mowatt Hall.]

The first of August (Ahgust as they call it) is the anniversary of Emanc.i.p.ation Day, and is a time of feasting and rejoicing. As in the case of wedding festivities, they do not limit themselves to one day, and holiday-making goes on for a week or longer.

The goat-skin drum is pitied for the thumping it gets. So a man will often stroke his picker (pickaxe) and say:--"He no a come out if he t'ought him face would a jam so a dirty," he would not have come out if he had thought his face was going to be thrust so hard into the ground.

"Self" is a redundant word. It strengthens "even if."

CLXXII.

[Music: _2nd Figure._

Once I was a trav'ller, trav'ller over the mountain, I nearly dead for water but a young gal show me the fountain.

Why, why me picny!

You shall be me wife.

Show me you mammy an' you daddy, An' you shall be me wife.

I have another sister, she blind she cannot see, But, if you wish to court her, you can come with me.

Why, why me picny!

you shall be me wife.

Show me you mammy an' you daddy, An' you shall be me wife.]

When a Black man says he is nearly dead for water he only means that he is rather thirsty.

This sing is of an unusual form and suggests a foreign origin.

CLXXIII.

Here, on the contrary, is something typically Jamaican:--

[Music: _5th Figure._

Oh! me wouldn' bawl at all, Oh! me wouldn' bawl at all, Oh! me wouldn' bawl at all, For the policeman come tell a lie 'pon me.]

A boy who has been arrested, conscious of his innocence, does not go through the usual pantomime of shrieks and tears. The policeman (observe the accent on the word) told a lie about me, he says.

CLXXIV.

Thoroughly Jamaican too, as to its words at least, is:--

[Music: _Jig._

You take junka 'tick fe go lick maugre dog, You take junka 'tick fe go lick maugre dog; When maugre dog dead a wh you a go do?

Wh you a go do, Birdie?

Wh you a go do?]

This is a remonstrance addressed by a mother to her daughter who has taken up a short stick to beat her. "It is true," she says, "that I am but a lean dog, but when the lean dog is dead what are you going to do?" (_Maugre_, French _maigre_, p.r.o.nounced _mahgher_.)

CLXXV.

[Music: _John Canoe dance._

Yellow fever come in, Me can't walk again; Him broke me hand, him broke me foot, Me can't walk again.]

The "John Canoe" are masked dancers very agile in their movements.