Dere’s where de niggers grow ten feet,
Dey go to bed, but ’tain’t no use,
Deir feet hang out for a chicken’s roos’.
[82] Cf. Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs, pp. 156-7.
CHAPTER XI
WORKADAY RELIGIOUS SONGS
Many a laborer, although singing his full quota of secular songs, still finds his workaday solace best in his favorite heritage of church and religious melodies. There is surcease of sorrow in the plaintive
Yes, Lawd, burden down, burden down,
O Lawd, since I laid my burden down.
And the appeal for relief from present difficulties, so eloquently expressed in the previous chapters, finds its counterpart in this favorite of many workers of the present day.
Do, Lawd, remember me,