ssary to explain how it comes that I am sure
of the number of "Quills" in a "Little Set." I recall the intricate tune
that could be played only by the performer's putting in the lowest
pitched note with his voice. I am herewith presenting that tune, and
"blocking out" the voice note there are only five notes left, thus I
know there were five "Quills" in the set. I thought a tune played on a
"Big Set" might be of interest and so I am giving one of those also. If
there be those who would laugh at the crudity of "Quills" it might not
be amiss to remember in justice to the inventors that "Quills"
constitute a pipe organ in its most rudimentary form.

[Illustration: Figure I A LITTLE SET OF QUILLS]

TUNE PLAYED ON A LITTLE SET OF QUILLS

[music]

TUNE PLAYED ON A BIG SET OF QUILLS

[music]

The "tr'angle" or triangle mentioned as the other primitive instrument
used by the rabbit and fox in serenading King Deer's family was only the
U-shaped iron clives which with its pin was used for hitching horses to
a plow. The antebellum Negro often suspended this U-shaped clives by a
string and beat it with its pin along with the playing on "Quills" much
after the order that a drum is beaten. These crude instruments produced
music not of unpleasant strain and inspired the production of some of
the best Negro Rhymes.

I would next consider for a little the origin of the subject matter
found in Negro Rhymes. When the Negro sings "Master Is Six Feet One Way"
or "The Alabama Way" there is no question where the subject matter came
from. But when he sings of animals, calling them all "Brother" or
"Sister," and "Bought Me a Wife," etc., the origin of the conception and
subject matter is not so clear. I now come to the question: From whence
came such subject matter?

First of all, Mr. Joel Chandler Harris, in his introduction to "Nights
with Uncle Remus," has shown that the Negro stories of our country have
counterparts in the Kaffir Tales of Africa. He therefore leaves strong
grounds for inference that the American Negroes probably brought the dim
outlines of their Br'er Rabbit stories along with them when they came
from Africa. I have already pointed out that some of the Folk Rhymes
belong to these Br'er Rabbit stories. Since the origin of the subject
matter of one is the origin of the subject matter of the other, it
follows that we are reasonably sure of the origin of such Folk Rhymes
because of the "counterpart" data presented by