His Songs: III. Corn-Shucking Song - Oh, The First News You Know The Day'll Be a-Breakin'

HIS SONGS

III. Corn-Shucking Song

Oh, the first news you know the day'll be a breakin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango! FN 1

And the fire be a-burnin' and the ash-cake a bakin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

And the hen'll be a hollerin' and the boss'll be a wakin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Better get up, nigger, and give yourself a shakin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Oh, honey! when you see them ripe stars a-fallin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Oh, honey! when you hear the rain-crow a-callin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Oh, honey! when you hear that red calf a-bawlin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Then the day time's a-creepin' and a crawlin" --
Hi O Miss Sindy Ann!

For the lost ell and yard [FN 2] is a huntin' for the mornin',
Hi O! get along! go away!

And she'll catch up with us 'fore we ever get this corn in --
Oh, go 'way, Sindy Ann!

Oh, honey! when you hear that tin horn a tootin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Oh, honey! when you hear the squinch owl a-hootin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Oh, honey! when you hear them little pigs a-rootin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Right then she's a comin' a skippin' and a scootin' --
Hi O, Miss Sindy Ann!

Oh, honey, when you hear that roan mule whicker --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

When you see Mister Moon turnin pale and gettin' sicker --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Then it's time for to handle that corn a little quicker--
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

If you want to get a smell of old Master's jug of liquor --
Hi O, Miss Sindy Ann!

For the lost ell and yard is a-huntin' for the mornin'
Hi O! git along! go away!

And she'll catch up with us 'fore we ever get this corn in --
Oh, go away, Sindy Ann!

You niggers across there! you better stop your dancin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

No use for to come a flingin' and your "sha'n'ts" in --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

No use for to come a flingin' and your "can't's" in--
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

'Cause there ain't no time for your pattin' nor your prancin'!
Hi O, Miss Sindy Ann!

Mr. Rabbit see the Fox, and he sass him and jaws him --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

The Fox catch the Rabbit, and he scratch him and he claws him --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

And he ter off the hide, and he chaws him and he gnaws him --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Same like gal chawin' sweet gum and rosin [FN 3]--
Hi O, Miss Sindy Ann!

For the lost ell and yard is a-huntin' for the mornin' --
Hi O! get along! go away!

And she'll catch up with us 'fore we ever get this corn in --
Oh, go away, Sindy Ann!

Oh, work on, boys! give these shucks a mighty wringin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Before the boss come around a dangin' and a dingin' --
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Get up and move around! set them big hands to swingin'--
Hey O! Hi O! Up and down the Bango!

Get up and shout loud! let the white folks hear you singin'!
Hi O, Miss Sindy Ann!

For the lost ell and yard is a huntin' for the mornin'
Hi O! git along! go away!

And she'll catch up with us 'fore we ever get this corn in --
Oh, go away, Sindy Ann!


.........................................................................


FN 1 Bango. Note by Joel Chandler Harris, compiler: "So far as I know, "Bango" is a meaningless term, introduced on account of its sonorous ruggedness." P. 186

We find: Bango can mean various in different languages, see http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/translation/Swahili/bango- a) "big pole barring entry" in the Venda language, a kind of Bantu, South Africa, culturally similar to the Zimbabwe. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venda_language (most slaves, however, came from West Africa, not South?); or, it can mean b) "husk" in Swahili - again, that is not West Africa, or c) "wide and thick" in Kerebe, and that would make sense for a cornstalk, pulling off the corn and shucking it, or for the corn itself - going up and down to shuck - but that also is East Africa. Can see no West African roots yet. Bango River is in India.

Checking African-American vernacular English at ://www.answers.com/topic/african-american-vernacular-english; and ebonics, at ://www.majorcox.com/columns/ebonics.htm.

Cannabis connection? Preparations for cannabis (marijuana) include "bhang", more from Middle East use, or [see current use of "bong"] and- this is interesting - "cannabis (hashis) rosin", see very rough entry at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bango_(cannabis). See FN 3

FN 2 "Ell en yard": Orion constellation belt star(s). Toward morning, does one fade, or what? This is "oil" en yard at the uncleremus.com site - those versions are sometimes different from ours in the 1921.

Note by Joel Chandler Harris, compiler: "The sword(see below) and belt in the constellation of Orion." P. 187.

We find: yard and ell, names of two stars in the belt of Orion, a/k/a "Golden Yard," see ://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/yard+and+ell.

JSTOR has answers but won't let us look. Will try to find time to look up "De Los' Ell en Yard", Annie Weston Whitney, The Journal of American Folklore, vol 10 no. 39, Oct-Dec 1897, pp.293-298. Univ. of Ill. Press, American Folklore Society.

Here is another article - exhaustive - on the history and stories behind star names, in literature and mythology, including Orion - ://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Orion*.html.

Compare to this one (think "yard-arm" as part of it): The "ell and yard" does not include the sword here -- that the ell and yard is three stars, in a straight line, only 3 degrees in length, sometime called "The Three Kings." Hanging from the belt: the sword, comprised of a curved line of stars, see ://books.google.com/books?id=GSbAktdWt2wC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=ell+and+yard+Orion&source=web&ots=5Le2WDa86t&sig=GER1NGzsyZAIYDb6An7w8dl1sAg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result

FN 3 - Rozzum - several choices. Rosin, we believe, or "resin," if FN 1's reference to possible translation for bango as a preparation of marijuana is on target. Rosin is listed at that very rough (read: needs work and verification) Wikipedia entry in connection with marijuana preparations. Marijuana in "herbal or resin" form can be used in cooking, see ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_brownie. The cooked result is psychoactive. Alice B. Toklas' version at http://www.subrosa.arbre.us/SubRosaBrownies.html: we thought it first came out in her recipes in 1933.

Rosin was also a medication, as was sweetgum and many other plants, see Folklore, at http://medinfo.ufl.edu/~medhum/FOLKLORE.htm.

Both together: The inclusion of "sweet gum" can mean the "resin" of that tree, obtained from scraping the bark, and enjoyed by native Americans and pioneers. ://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Sweetgum/sweetgum.htm. Nothing psychedelic mentioned there. Enough. Let's say people did both as they liked.