it was originally a "call" and "response"; the "call" being in a
9/8 measure and the "response" being in a 6/8 measure. Here then we have
"call" and "sponse." It would look as if the Negroes in Tennessee had
combined the "calls" and "sponses" into one and had used them as a
whole. When we accept this view all the differences, between the Alabama
and Tennessee productions, before mentioned are accounted for. Then
looking again at Number 1 under Tennessee calls or responses, one sees
that it would conveniently divide right in the middle to make a "call"
and "sponse." Now look at Number 3 under Tennessee calls. It was usually
cried off with the syllable _ah_ and would easily divide in the middle.
I remember this "call" very distinctly from my childhood because the men
giving it placed the thumb upon the larynx and made it vibrate
longitudinally while uttering the cry. The thumb thus used produced a
peculiar screeching and rattling tone that hardly sounded human. But the
words "I want a piece of hoecake, etc.," as recorded under the "call,"
were often rhymed off in song with it. Thus we trace the form of "call"
and "sponse" from the friendly musical greeting between laborers at a
distance to the place of the formation of a crude Rhyme to go with it. I
would have the reader notice that these words finally supplied were in
"call" and "sponse" form. The idea is that one individual says: "I want
a piece of hoecake, I want a piece o' bread," and another chimes in by
way of response: "Well, I'se so tired and hongry dat I'se almos' dead."

"Ole Billie Bawlie" found as Number 4 was a little song which was used
to deride men who had little ability musically to intonate "calls" and
"sponses." The name "Bawlie" was applied to emphasize that the
individual bawled instead of sounding pleasant notes. It is of interest
to us because it is a mixture of Rhyme and Field "call" and completes
the connecting links along the line of Evolution between the "call" and
"sponse" and the Rhyme.

Wherever one thing is derived from another by process of Evolution,
there is the well known biological law that there ought to be every
grade of connecting link between the original and the last evolved
product. The law holds good here in our Rhymes. If this last statement
holds good then the law must be universal. May we be permitted to
digress enough to show that the law is universal because, though it is a
law whose biological phase has been long recognize