For better friends above.
Elder Edmund Dumas of Georgia is supposed to have made the tune. He very likely was the first to record it, that is, for the 1859 edition of the Sacred Harp. A variant is ‘[Converted Thief (A)]’ in this collection. The negroes have caught the significant part of the chorus in their song ‘Lay This Body Down’, Slave Songs, No. 26. One couplet of this song is
And my soul an’ your soul will meet in de day
When we lay dis body down.
No. 197
[HAD I WINGS] or [ECSTACY], OSH 106
Pentatonic, mode 2 (I — 3 IV V — 7)
O when shall I see Jesus,
And reign with Him above,
And from the flowing fountain