to relate one of the stories is the surest road to their
confidence and esteem. In this way, and in this way only, I have
been enabled to collect and verify the folklore included in this
volume. There is an anecdote about the Irishman and the rabbit
which a number of negroes have told to me with great unction, and
which is both funny and characteristic, though I will not
undertake to say that it has its origin with the blacks. One
day an Irishman who had heard people talking about "mares' nests"
was going along the big road--it is always the big road in
contradistinction to neighborhood paths and by-paths, called in
the vernacular "nigh-cuts"--when he came to a pumpkin--patch. The
Irishman had never seen any of this fruit before, and he at once
concluded that he had discovered a veritable mare's nest. Making
the most of his opportunity, he gathered one of the pumpkins in
his arms and went on his way. A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward
thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made
a misstep, and stumbled. The pumpkin fell to the ground, rolled
down the hill into a "brush--heap," and, striking against a
stump, was broken. The story continues in the dialect: "W'en de
punkin roll in de bresh--heap, out jump a rabbit; en soon's de
I'shmuns see dat, he take atter de rabbit en holler: 'Kworp,
colty! kworp, colty!' but de rabbit, he des flew." The point of
this is obvious.
As to the songs, the reader is warned that it will be found
difficult to make them conform to the ordinary rules of
versification, nor is it intended that they should so conform.
They are written, and are intended to be read, solely with
reference to the regular and invariable recurrence of the
caesura, as, for instance, the first stanza of the Revival Hymn:
"Oh, whar / shill we go / w'en de great / day comes
Wid de blow / in' er de trumpits / en de bang / in' er de
drums /
How man / y po' sin / ners'll be kotch'd / out late
En fine / no latch ter de gold / en gate /"
In other words, the songs depend for their melody and rhythm
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