he whole story, it being the
Rabbit's song in that story, and the child stopped whatever he was
doing. Other and better examples of such Rhymes are "Young Master and
Old Master," "The Alabama Way," and "You Had Better Mind Master," found
in our collection.

The warnings were commonly such as would help the slave to escape more
successfully the lash, and to live more comfortably under slave
conditions. I would not for once intimate that I entertain the thought
that the ignorant slave carefully and philosophically studied his
surroundings, reasoned it to be a fine method to warn children through
poetry, composed verse, and like a wise man proceeded to use it. Of
course thinking preceded the making of the Rhyme, but a conscious system
of making verses for the purpose did not exist. I have often watched
with interest a chicken hen lead forth her brood of young for the first
time. While the scratching and feeding are going on, all of a sudden the
hen utters a loud shriek, and flaps her wings. The little chicks,
although they have never seen a hawk, scurry hither and thither, and so
prostrate their little brown and ashen bodies upon the ground as almost
to conceal themselves. The Negro Folk Rhymes of warning must be looked
upon a little in this same light. They are but the strains of terror
given by the promptings of a mother instinct full enough of love to give
up life itself for its defenseless own.

Many Rhymes were used to convey to children the common sense truths of
life, hidden beneath their comic, crudely cut coats. Good examples are
"Old Man Know-All," "Learn to Count," and "Shake the Persimmons Down."
All through the Rhymes will be found here and there many stanzas full of
common uncommon sense, worthwhile for children.

Many Negro Folk Rhymes repeated or sung to children on their parents'
knees were enlarged and told to them as stories, when they became older.
The Rhyme in our collection on "Judge Buzzard" is one of this kind. In
the Negro version of the race between the hare and the tortoise
("rabbit and terrapin"), the tortoise wins not through the hare's going
to sleep, but through a gross deception of all concerned, including even
the buzzard who acted as Judge. The Rhyme is a laugh on "Jedge Buzzard."
It was commonly repeated to Negro children in olden days when they
passed erroneous judgments. "Buckeyed rabbit! Whoopee!" in our volume
belongs with the Negro story recorded by Joel Chandler Harris under the