670 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a full-blooded African named Aunt Dinah. She would lovingly 

 put her little charge to sleep with this doggerel: 



FADDING, GIDDIXG. 



^ 



5 



p^ 



sfe 



Pad-ding, gid-ding, fad-ding go ; San - te mo - le, san - te mo - le ; 



3^^^^ 



^ ^ d 4 



? 



Fad-ding, gld-ding, fad-ding go ; Eb-er seace I born ma' ban' 'tan so. 



Aunt Dinah would also sing it pleadingly when begging for a 

 present. She would begin the supplication with hands clinched 

 tight, and open them quickly at the last line. She declared that 

 she always sang it in this exact manner in her old African home 

 whenever she Avas asking a favor, but she was never able to tell the 

 meaning of any part of it except the last line, the African of which 

 she had forgotten, but which meant that all black races are born 

 with wide-open palms ready and waiting for other peoples to pour 

 rich gifts into them. This she translated in her apt, crude way: 

 " Eber sence I born, my hand stand so! " 



She had a relative named Moses, I think, who had three deep 

 gashes radiating from each eye. Of these he was very proud, as 

 he said they indicated that he was of the king's blood. 



Ten days have elapsed since the above w^as written. I feel like 

 crying, "Eureka!" I have found my proof! After a diligent 

 search for a real live African, I have found an educated convert to 

 Christianity, who has been absent only two years from the wilds 

 of the west coast of Africa. In broken English he sang for me sev- 

 eral songs sung by the savages of the native Mendi tribe. The 

 tunes sounded much like songs I know, but I could not take them 

 down during this interview. All the songs I sang he said seemed 

 very familiar — in certain portions especially so. 



I was especially interested in the description he gave of a pe- 

 culiar ceremony common among the wildest Bushmen and the Yol- 

 loff tribe. My informant grew up and played with them a great 

 deal when a child. Tie says the death of a young boy they con- 

 sider an affront to the living — an affront which they never forgive. 

 It is singular that among some of our Indian tribes a similar notion 

 prevails. The friends meet around the corpse and exclaim, Avhile 

 they chant and sing and dance, in a high-pitched voice: " Why did 

 you die? Were you too proud to stay with us? You thought your- 

 self too good to stay with us. To whom do you leave all vour 



