253 



May 5. (Sunday.) 

 We continue to proceed at such a tortoise-pace, 

 that it has been thought advisable to put the crew 

 upon an allowance of water. 



May ?. 



A negro song. — <c Me take my cutacoo, (i. e. a 

 basket made of matting,) and follow him to Lucea, 

 and all for love of my bonny man-O — My bonny 

 man come home, come home ! Doctor no do you 

 good. When neger fall into neger hands, buckra 

 doctor no do him good more. Come home, my 

 gold ring, come home ! " This is the song of a 

 wife, whose husband had been Obeahed by another 

 woman, in consequence of his rejecting her ad- 

 vances. A negro riddle : " Pretty Miss Nancy 

 was going to market, and she tore her fine yellow 

 gown, and there was not a taylor in all the town 

 who could mend it again." This is a ripe plan- 

 tain with a broken skin. The negroes are also 

 very fond of what they call Nancy stories, part of 

 which is related, and part sung. The heroine of 

 one of them is an old woman named Mamma 

 Luna, who having left a pot boiling in her hut, 

 found it robbed on her return. Her suspicions 

 were divided between two children whom she 

 found at play near her door, and some negroes who 

 had passed that way to market. The children de- 

 nied the theft positively. It was necessary for the 



