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NEGRO FOLK RHYMES |
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(b) "Big bird catch, little bird sing. Bug bee zoom, little bee sting. Little man lead, and the big horse follow, Can you tell what's good for a head in a hollow?"
These and many others are fragmentarily recorded among Mr. Harris' Negro stories in "Nights With Uncle Remus.''
Folk Rhymes also formed in many cases the words of Negro Play Songs. "Susie Girl," and "Peep Squirrel," found in our collection, are good illustrations of the Rhymes used in this way. The words and the music of such Rhymes were usually of poor quality. When, however, they were sung by children with the proper accompanying body movements, they might quite well remind one of the "Folk Dances" used in the present best up-to-date Primary Schools. They were the little rays of sunshine in the dark dreary monotonous lives of black slave children.
Possibly the thing which will impress the reader most in reading Negro Folk Rhymes is their good-natured drollery and sparkling nonsense. I believe this is very important. Many have recounted in our hearing, the descriptions of "backwoods" Ne-
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