clearly intimates to all who know about the old-fashioned ash-hopper
that such an individual lies. This saying is a part of another stanza of
"Old Man Know-All," but I cannot recall it from my dim memory of the
past, and others whom I have asked seem equally unable to do so, though
they have once known it.

As is the case with all things of Folk origin, there is usually more
than one version of each Negro Folk Rhyme. In many cases the exercising
of a choice between many versions was difficult. I can only express the
hope that my choices have been wise.

There are two American Negro Folk Rhymes in our collection: "Frog in a
Mill" and "Tree Frogs," which are oddities in "language." They are
rhymes of a rare type of Negro, which has long since disappeared. They
were called "Ebo" Negroes and "Guinea" Negroes. The so-called "Ebo"
Negro used the word "la" very largely for the word "the." This and some
other things have caused me to think that the "Ebo" Negro was probably
one who was first a slave among the French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and
was afterwards sold to an English-speaking owner. Thus his language was
a mixture of African, English, and one of these languages. The so-called
"Guinea" Negro was simply one who had not been long from Africa; his
language being a mixture of his African tongue and English. These rhymes
are to the ordinary Negro rhymes what "Jutta Cord la" in "Nights with
Uncle Remus," by Joel Chandler Harris, is to the ordinary Negro stories
found there. They are probably representative, in language, of the most
primitive Negro Folk productions.

Some of the rhymes are very old indeed. If one will but read "Master Is
Six Feet One Way," found in our collection, he will find in it a
description of a slave owner attired in Colonial garb. It clearly
belongs, as to date of composition, either to Colonial days, or to the
very earliest years of the American Republic. When we consider it as a
slave rhyme, it is far from crudest, notwithstanding the early period of
its production.

If one carefully studies our collection of rhymes, he will probably get
a new and interesting picture of the Negro's mental attitude and
reactions during the days of his enslavement. One of these mental
reactions is calculated to give one a surprise. One would naturally
expect the Negro under hard, trying, bitter slave conditions, to long to
be white. There is a remarkable Negro Folk rhyme which shows that this
was not the case. Th