Subject:Bamboo
Entries
Entry 3983
An' de bamboo j'int [joint] grow wit it. (What does he do now?) Bore a hole into a bamboo j'int - a growin' bamboo. (Yes.[= continue].) Yo' see, dat's disfigurin' a man. If yo' wan'a disfigure a man or a Woman, put it [his or her urine] into a bamboo j'int - lak a bamboo growin', cane yo' know.
(How do you put it into that?)
Yo' take de chamber lye - yo' put a hole a hole big enough [into the bamboo] tuh git it [small bottle of urine] in dere. An' whilst it growin' plug it [make a hole in the bamboo, just like plugging a watermelon]. Let it [plant] grow wit it [bottle] in dere. An' wit de highah it grow, de longah yo' grow, 'till yo' git so disfigured dat yo' have to be cut by de doctor [M.D.].
(I see. Just put my chamber lye in a little bottle and put it in there?)
Yeah, put it in dere but "He go."
(What?)
"Nen he go - negro."
[First word uncertain - then?]
(What's that?)
De words?
(You have to say negro when you put it in there?)
Yeah, I go, yo' go, me go. I go, yo' go [etc., and probably repeated 3 times, adding negro at the end. See comment later.]
(Yes, I see. While you are putting that bottle in there you say that?)
Yes, sir, an' yo' got 'im anywhere yo' want.
(I see, until the doctor has to cut him up.)
[Could the preceding rhyme be a variant of the one in my boyhood some years before World War I? It went: I go, you go, he go, they go. Children usually changed this to: I go, you go, he go; god damm Dago - the latter word a substi- tution for dey (= they) go. This was a meaningless smart-Alec remark (Alec usually pronounced Elik) - like The Irish and the Dutch, they don't amount to much - not an aspersion against anyone in particular.] [The identity of plants was always a weakness among informants. My present one uses the words bamboo and cane. Does he mean introduced ornamental bamboos or indigenous canes? Could this be the cane-reed or southern cane (Arundenaria macrosperma), native to wet ground from Virginia to the Gulf States? And what about those wide-spread cane brakes of pioneer Kentucky, through which buffalo made famous traces or paths northward to Lower Blue Licks; highways Immediately followed and still used by man! Indirectly I mention this cane when describing the great meeting of 1801 at Cane Ridge Meeting House, Bourbon Co., Ky. (v.1, INTRO., Pp. XvIII-XIx). The meetinghouse had been built upon a well-known cane ridge.]