The Days of a Man 



1878 



Native 

 songs 



Patting 



A soldier sat by the road one day 

 And he was looking very gay, 

 For on his back was a bag of meal 

 Which he had stole' from an old tar-heel. 1 



He built him a fire to bake his bread 

 And when he had done he gayly said: 

 "Nothing in this world surpasses 

 Good old corn bread and sorghum molasses. 



"In Alabama they eat peas, 



In Tennessee just what they please, 



In North Carolina, tar and rosin, 



But Georgia girls eat goobers 2 and sorghum. 8 



"By and by, by and by, 

 Marry a girl with a bright blue eye. 

 Georgia girls there's none surpasses, 

 For they are fond of sorghum molasses!" 



At the "Pine-laden Inn for Collard," farther on, 

 we nearc i two "patting songs"; that is, songs accom- 

 panied by rhythmical slaps on the thigh to mark 

 time in dancing: 



Round the ring, Miss Ju'ly. 



Round the ring, Miss Ju'ly, 



O long summah day! 



The moon shines bright, 



The stahs look light, 



O look away ovah yondah, 



See some pretty little yallah gal 



And tell 'eh how you love heh! 



Geo'gia rabbit, whoa, whoa, 

 Geo'gia rabbit, whoa; 

 Stole my lovah, whoa, whoa, 

 Stole my lovah, whoa. 



1 A native of North Carolina. 2 Peanuts. 



3 The broom corn, from which is made a syrup inferior to the molasses of 

 the sugar cane Saccharum of farther south. 



c 1703 



