The bobbin is "Oh hurrah boys!" and a good swinging one it is. If the bobbin is well taken up each sing lasts for about five minutes, and the raiser of the tune prides himself on the number of "turnings" or slight variations he can give it. He also improvises words as he goes on. Such a sally as changing Miss Ray's name to Banana would be met with laughter when it was first heard.

("Da broke man heart" means "has broken a man's heart")

LIII.

The next example is a type of many of the sings. It turns on a piece of local gossip. The "at last" is significant and points to Catherine being an old offender. The proffered sympathy is hardly sincere.

[[Listen]] [[XML]]

Ho biddybye, biddybye
me yerry the talk biddybye,
say Cat'rine gone a prison
biddybye poor me Cat'rine oh biddybye
Cat'rine gone at last biddybye.

Here is the story in plain English, "deep English" as the Negro calls it, not understanding it well:—"Oh by the bye I hear a report that Catherine has gone to prison. My poor Catherine!"

(For "say" read "which says." "Biddybye" is the bobbin.)