NEGRO FOLKLORE The folk-lore of the Negro of the United States, for all its sur face appearance of naïve simplicity, is a complex thing. Its ori gins are mixed, and often lost in obscurity. Some elements are clearly African in their beginnings, while others are as definitely related to the lore of the whites. The "big house" of colonial days, as well as the jungle of Africa has had its share in shaping Negro folk-lore. The transplanted race cherishes the superstitions, the ballads, the stories of both the new home and the old, and what it borrows makes its own as distinctly as what it originated.
There is a rich body of folk-tales current among the American Negroes, some of which have been preserved in print, and many of which are transmitted orally by the firesides and door-steps of the south. A still greater mass, no doubt, has been lost for lack of chroniclers and tellers. The best-known body of their pub lished folk-tales is that collected by Joel Chandler Harris—made familiar by the name of Uncle Remus.
In his songs and stories the Negro shows his fondness for ani mals, his admiration for their craft, his interest in their prowess. He endows them with human attributes of thought and speech, and gives them greater cunning than natural history would au thorize.
The Negro shows great variety in his songs, contrary to the popular conception that he sings only spirituals. The spirituals, which are melodious and haunting in their tunes, and which express humility and sweetness of spirit, owe something at least to the hymns and religious songs heard on the southern planta tion. There are various groups of secular songs. There are nu merous work songs, for the Negro, a truly rhythmic person, works better and faster when he sings at his task.
The American Negro has had his part in transmitting the tradi tional songs and ballads of England and Scotland, and has made them his own.
There are many ballads that the Negro has made for himself, owing nothing to the whites. There are lullabies, old dance songs or "reels," children's game songs, counting songs, songs of love, of war and of other themes.
There is a mass of folk-beliefs, of superstitions, current among the southern Negroes, belief in ghosts, in witches, in the power of "voodoo" and so forth. In fact, the Negro folk-lore constitutes the largest and most varied body of lore to be found in America to-day. (D. Sc.)