own from generation to generation through oral tradition.
These are genuine folk-songs--lyrics, ballads, rhymes--in which are
crystallized the thought and feeling, the universally shared lore of a
folk. Recent theorizers on poetic origins who would insist upon
individual as opposed to community authorship of certain types of
song-narrative might do well to consider Professor Talley's
characteristic study. And students of comparative literature who love to
recreate the life of a tribe or nation from its song and story will
discover in this collection a mine of interesting material.

Fisk University, the center of Negro culture in America, is to be
congratulated upon having initiated the gathering and preservation of
these relics, a valuable heritage from the past. Just how important for
literature this heritage may prove to be will not appear until this
institution--and others with like purposes--has fully developed by
cultivation, training, and careful fostering the artistic impulses so
abundantly a part of the Negro character. A race which has produced,
under the most disheartening conditions, a mass of folk-poetry such as
_Negro Folk Rhymes_ may be expected to create with unlimited
opportunities for self-development, a literature and a distinctive music
of superior quality.

WALTER CLYDE CURRY.

Vanderbilt University,
September 30, 1921.

PART I

NEGRO FOLK RHYMES

DANCE RHYME SECTION

JONAH'S BAND PARTY

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Han's up sixteen! Circle to de right!
We's gwine to git big eatin's here to-night."

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Raise yo' right foot, kick it up high,
Knock dat [1]Mobile Buck in de eye."

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Stan' up, flat foot, [1]Jump dem Bars!
[1]Karo back'ards lak a train o' kyars."

Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
Setch a kickin' up san'! Jonah's Ban'!
"Dance 'round, Mistiss, show 'em de p'int;
Dat Nigger don't know how to [1]Coonjaint."

[1] These are dance steps. For explanation read the Study in Negro Folk
Rhymes.

LOVE IS JUST A THING OF FANCY

Love is jes a thing o' fancy,
Beauty's jes a blossom;
If you wants to git y[=o]' finger bit,
Stick