'

en den Br'er Fox, he make _answer_, 'Dat's so, dat's so, en I'm glad dat
it's so.' Den de quills, and de tr'angle, dey come in, en den Br'er
Rabbit pursue on wid de call--

"'Some kill sheep, en some kill shote,
But Br'er Fox kill King Deer goat,'

en den Br'er Fox, he jine in wid de answer, 'I did, I did, en I'm glad
dat I did.'"

The writer would add that the story ends with a statement that King Deer
came out with his walking cane, and beat the fox, and then invited the
rabbit in to eat chicken pie.

From the foregoing one will recognize the naming, by the Negroes
themselves, of the parts of their rhymed song, as "call," and "answer."
Now just a word concerning the term "answer," instead of "sponse," as
used by the writer. You will notice that Mr. Harris records,
incidentally, of Br'er Rabbit "dat he sing de _call_, lak de Captain er
de co'n pile." This has reference to the singing of the Negroes at corn
huskings where the leader sings a kind of solo part, and the others by
way of response, sing a kind of chorus. At corn huskings, at plays, and
elsewhere, when Negroes sang secular songs, some one was chosen to lead.
As a little boy, I witnessed secular singing in all these places. When a
leader was chosen, the invariable words of his commission were: "You
sing the 'call' and we'll sing the '_sponse_.'" Of course the sentence
was not quite so well constructed grammatically, but "call" and "sponse"
were the terms always used. This being true, I have felt that I ought to
use these terms, though I recognize the probability of there being
communities where the word _answer_ would be used. All folk terms and
writings have different versions.

The "sponses" in most of the Negro Folk Rhymes in our collection are
wanting, and the Rhymes themselves, in most cases, consist of calls
only. As examples of those with "sponses" left, may be mentioned "Juba"
with its sponse "Juba"; "Frog Went A-courting," with its sponse
"Uh-huh!"; "Did You Feed My Cow?" with its sponse "Yes, Ma'am," etc.,
and "The Old Black Gnats," where the sponses are "I cain't git out'n
here, etc."

I shall now endeavor to show why the Negro Folk Rhymes consist in most
cases of "calls" only, and how and why the "sponses" have disappeared
from the finished product. I record here the notes of two common Negro
Play Songs along with sample stanzas used in the singing of them. I hope
through a little study of these, to make clear the matter of Folk