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Come trem-ble-ing down, go shout-ing home, Safe in the sweet arms of
Je-sus, Come Je-sus, 'Twas just a-bout the break of day, King Je-sus stole my
heart a-way, 'Twas just a-bout the break of day, King Je-sus stole my heart a-way.

Such examples contain nothing that is imitative. Their disregard for the natural progressions of diatonic melody leave no doubt that the negro possessed, to begin with, a wholly independent sense of tonality, which sense he has in some measure retained or compromised. As an instance of the minor seventh in the major scale take 'A Great Camp Meetin'.' We quote only the last three measures of the first section in order to establish the key:

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Don't you get a-weary, Dere's a great camp-meet-in' in de prom-ised land,
Gwine to mourn an' neb-ber tire,——— mourn an' neb-ber tire,
mourn an' neb-ber tire;— Dere's a great camp-meet-in' in de prom-ised land.

And, as a last example of tunes that have little in common with any other kind of folk-song, a melody worthy of the sophistication of an ultra-modern composer, let us add 'O'er the Crossing':

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