170 



Why de Ha'r is Missin'. 



Go 'way fiddle ! — folks is tired a-hearin' you a-sqnawkin'. 

 Keep silence for your betters — don't yon heah de banjo talkin' ? 

 About de 'possum's tail she's gwine to lecter — ladies, listen ! — 

 About de ha'r what isn't dar, an' why de ha'r is missin'. 



I omit the flood, and the loading and launching of the ark, and pass 

 on to the final denoument : 



De ark, she keep' a sailin', an' a sailin', an' a sailin'; 



De lion got his dander up, an' like to bruk de palin' — 



De sarpints hissed — de painter yelled — tell, what wid all de fussin', 



You c'u'dn't hardly heah de mate a-bossin' roun' an' oussin'. 



Now Ham, de only nigger what was runniu' on de packet. 

 Got lonesome in de barber shop, an' c'u'dn't stan' de racket ; 

 An' so for to amuse he-self, he steamed some wood an' bent it. 

 An' soon he had a banjo made — de fust dat was invented. 



He wet de ledder, stretched it on, made bridge, an' screws, an' apron ; 



An' fitted in a proper neck — 'twas very long an' tap'rin'. 



He tnk some tin, an' twisted him a thimble for to ring it ; 



An' den de mighty question riz, how was he gwine to string it ? 



De 'possum had as fine a tail as dis dat I am singin' ; 

 De ha'rs as long an' thick an' strong — des fib for banjo-stringin' ; 

 Dat nigger shaved 'em off as short as wash-day dinner graces ; 

 An' sorted ob 'em by de size, from little e's to basses. 



He strung her, tuned her, struck a jig — 'twas " Nebber miu' de wedder ;" 

 She soun' like forty-'leven bands, a-playin' all togedder; 

 Some went to pattin', some to danoin' ; Noah called de figgers, 

 An' Ham, he sot and knocked de tune, de happiest ob niggers ! 



Now, sence dat time — it's mighty strange — dere's not de slightest showin' 



Ob any hair at all, upon de 'possum's tail a-growiu' ; 



An' curl's, too — dat nigger's ways ; his people neb'jer los' 'em — 



For where you finds de nigger, dar's de banjo an' de 'possum ! 



But the Opossum's tail, shorn as it is of its musical strings, still has, 

 according to some of the older writers, wonderful medicinal virtues. 



In Godman, occurs the following quotation from Marcgrave's Natural 

 History of the Spanish American Colonies : " The tail of this animal 

 is a singular and wonderful remedy against inflammation of the kidneys ; 

 and if it be chewed and placed on a part into which thorns have been 

 thrust, it extracts them, and I believe in all New Spain, there is not to 

 be found another remedy as useful in so many cases."* 



The above is an instance of the credulity and disposition to deal in the 

 marvellous, which, in days of " Lang Syne," and, occasionally, in the 

 present, is deemed an almost essential quality of the natural historian. 



* "Excitat Tenerem, et generat lac, medetur oolicis doloribus piodest parientibus, et 

 aocelerat partum promovet menses." — Godman, i, page 365. 



