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INTRODUCTION |
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Yes, my ole Mosser promise' me; But "his papers" didn't leave me free. A dose of pizen he'pped 'im along. May de Devil preach 'is funer'l song.
The manner of this conclusion is strikingly like that of the Scottish ballad, "Edward,"
The curse of hell frae me sail ye beir,
Mither, Mither, The curse of hell frae me sail ye beir, Sic counseils ye gave to me O.
In both a story of cruelty is suggested in a single artistic line and ended with startling, dramatic abruptness.
In fact, these two songs probably had their ultimate origin in not widely dissimilar types of illiterate, unsophisticated human society. Professor Talley's "Study in Negro Folk Rhymes," appended to this volume of songs, is illuminating. One may not be disposed to accept without considerable modification his theories entire; still his account from personal, first-hand knowledge of the beginnings and possible evolution of certain rhymes in this collection is apparently authentic. Here we have again, in the nineteenth century, the record of a singing, dancing people creating by a process
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