t of these
drum orchestras. When the Negroes were transported to America, and began
to sing songs and to chant words in another tongue, they still sang
strains calling, through inheritance, for the accompaniment of their
ancestral drum. The Negro's drum having fallen from him as he entered
civilization, he unwittingly called into service his foot to take its
place. This substitution finds a parallelism in the highly cultivated La
France rose, which being without stamens and pistils must be propagated
by cuttings or graftings instead of by seeds. The rose, purposeless,
emits its sweet perfume to the breezes and thus it attracts insects for
cross fertilization simply because its staminate and pistillate
ancestors thus called the insect world for that purpose. The rattle of
the crude drum of the Native African was loud by inheritance in the
hearts of his early American descendants and its unseen ghost walks in
the midst of all their poetry.

Many Negro Folk Rhymes were used as banjo and fiddle (violin) songs. It
ought to be borne in mind, however, that even these were quite often
repeated without singing or playing. It was common in the early days of
the public schools of the South to hear Negro children use them as
declamations. The connection, however, of Negro Folk Rhymes with their
secular music productions is well worthy of notice.

I have often heard those who liked to think and discuss things musical,
wonder why little or no music of a secular kind worth while seemed to be
found among Negroes while their religious music, the Jubilee Songs, have
challenged the admiration of the world. The songs of most native peoples
seem to strike "high water mark" in the secular form. Probably numbers
of us have heard the explanation: "You see, the Negro is deeply
emotional; religion appealed to him as did nothing else. The Negro
therefore spent his time singing and shouting praises to God, who alone
could whisper in his heart and stir up these emotions." There is perhaps
much truth in this explanation. It is also such a delicate and high
compliment to the Negro race, that I hesitate to touch it. One of the
very few gratifying things that has come to Negroes is the unreserved
recognition of their highly religious character. There is a truth,
however, about the relation between the Negro Folk Rhyme and the Negro's
banjo and fiddle music which ought to be told even though some older,
nicer viewpoints might be a little shifted.

Th