"And he say, 'What it sound to you like it say, humph?'
"And de people laugh and say it soun' like it say nuffin but 'Tim—tam! tim—tam!'
"And Moss Nora say: 'Dot's whar you fotch up wrong. I got ter build this ark so tight de water won't leak thoo, and de people won't fall out, and dat hammer don't say "Tim—tam," no sich ting. Hit say ebery time I hits de jistes, "Repent! repent!"'
"Dere's a spiritual what goes long wid it too, honey, 'bout de hammer an' de nails, but I don't know it. Hit's a ole, ole story dat we been singin' since de Flood—jes come down from mouf to mouf. Hist de Window is a ole tune, but not ole like dis one. Hit done come jis like I tole you."
In regard to one song, at least, I have irrefragable proof of its African origin. Mrs. Jefferson Davis tells me her old nurse was a full-blooded African named Aunt Dinah. She would lovingly put her little charge to sleep with this doggerel:
FADDING, GIDDING.
[[Listen]]
Lyrics:
Fadding, gidding, fadding go; Santé molé, santé molé;
Fadding, gidding, fadding go; Eber sence I born ma' han' 'tan so.