triking thought. Since all the Rhymes had
to be memorized to insure their continued existence, and since Memory
works largely through Association; one readily sees that the putting of
the Rhymes into a story, descriptive, or striking thought form, was the
only thing that could cause their being kept alive. It was only through
their being composed thus that Association was able to assist Memory in
recalling them. Those carrying another form carried their death warrant.

Now let us look a little more intimately into how the Rhymes were
probably composed. In collecting them, I often had the same Rhyme given
to me over and over again by different individuals. Most of the Rhymes
were given by different individuals in fragmentary form. In case of all
the Rhymes thus received, there would always be a half stanza, or a
whole stanza which all contributors' versions held in common. As
examples: in "Promises of Freedom," all contributors gave the lines--

"My ole Mistiss promise me
W'en she died, she'd set me free."

In "She Hugged Me and Kissed Me," the second stanza was given by all. In
"Old Man Know-All," the first two lines of the last stanza came from all
who gave the Rhyme. The writer terms these parts of the individual
Rhymes, seemingly known to all who know the "poems," _key verses_. The
very fact that the key verses, only, are known to all, seems to me to
warrant the conclusion that these were probably the first verses made in
each individual Rhyme. Now when an individual made such a key verse, one
can easily see that various singers of "calls" using it would attempt to
associate other verses of their own making with it in order to remember
them all for their long "singing Bees." The story, the description, and
the striking thought furnished convenient vehicles for this association
of verses, so as to make them easy to keep in memory. This is why the
verses of many singers of "Calls" finally became blended into little
poem-like Rhymes.

I have pointed out "call" and "sponse," in Rhymes, and have shown how,
through them, in song, the form of the Negro Rhyme came into existence.
But many of the Pastime Rhymes apparently had no connection with the
Play or the Dance. I must now endeavor to account for such Rhymes as
these.

In order to do this, I must enter upon the task of trying to show how
"call" and "sponse" originated.

The origin of "call" and "sponse" is plainly written on the faces of the
rhymes of the