by the Federal forces and it was here that people
from the North first came in contact with the plantation Negro of the
lower South. They immediately became interested in the manners and
customs of the Island Negroes, and from them we have the first
accurate accounts of their folk-lore and sayings.

The Sea Island Negroes speak a distinct dialect and retain certain
customs which are supposed to be of African origin. It is, however, in
their religious practices that we have the nearest approach to
anything positively African. This has undoubtedly the characteristics
of primitive ritual. But this does not mean that it is African in
origin. It seems to me more likely that it is to be interpreted as a
very simple and natural expression of group emotion, which is just
beginning to crystallize and assume a formal character. The general
tone of these meetings is that of a religious revival in which we
expect a free and uncontrolled expression of religious emotion, the
difference being that in this case the expression of the excitement is
beginning to assume a formal and ritualistic character.

In the voodoo practices, of which we have not any accurate records,
the incantations that were pronounced by the priests, contain strange,
magic words, scraps of ancient ritual, the meanings of which are
forgotten. Lafcadio Hearne, who knew the Negro life of Louisiana and
Martinique intimately and was keen on the subject of Negro folk-lore,
has preserved for us this scrap from an old Negro folk song in which
some of these magic words have been preserved. Writing to his friend
Edward Krehbiel he says:

"Your friend is right, no doubt about the
'Tig, tig, malaborn
La Chelerna che tango
Redjoum!'

"I asked my black nurse what it meant. She only laughed and shook
her head. 'Mais c'est voodoo, ca; je n'en sais rien!' 'Well,'
said I, 'don't you know anything about Voodoo songs?' 'Yes,' she
answered, 'I know Voodoo songs; but I can't tell you what they
mean.' And she broke out into the wildest, weirdest ditty I ever
heard. I tried to write down the words; but as I did not know
what they meant I had to write by sound alone, spelling the words
according to the French pronunciation."[9]

So far as I know there are, among the plantation hymns, no such
remains of ancient ritual, mystical words whose meanings are unknown,
no traces whatever of African tradition. If there is