Chapter 2 YUNG-KYUM-PYUNG.

A King had t'ree daughter, but nobody in the world know their name. All the learned man from all part of the eart' come to guess them name, an' no one could'n guess them.

Brother Annancy hear of it an' say:-"Me me I mus' have fe fin' them ya-ya gal name. Not a man can do it abbly no me."

So one day the King t'ree gal gone out to bathe, an' Brother Annancy make a pretty basket, an' put it in a the house where he knew they was going to come fe eat them vittle.

He leave it there, an' go under the house fe hear the name.

When them come, them see the basket, an' it was the prettiest something they ever see in their life.

Then the biggest one cry out:-

Yung-kyum-pyung! What a pretty basket!

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone! What a pretty basket!

And the next one say:-

Margaret-Powell-Alone! What a pretty basket!

Eggie-Law! What a pretty basket!

And the youngest bahl:-

Eggie-Law! What a pretty basket, eh?

Yung-kyum-pyung! What a pretty basket, eh?

Brother Annancy hear it all good, an' he glad so till him fly out a the house an' gone.

Him go an' make up a band of music with fiddle an' drum, an' give the musicians them a tune to sing the names to.

An' after a week him come back.

When him get where the King could yerry, him give out:-"Play up the music, play up the music."

So they play an' sing:-

[Listen] [XML]

Yung-kyum-pyung

Eggie-Law

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone.

After six times sing the Queen yerry.

She say:-"Who is that calling my daughter name?"

Annancy tell them fe play all the better.

Then the Queen massoo himself from up'tairs, an' t'row down broke him neck.

Dat time de King no yerry, so Annancy harder to play de music still.

At last the King yerry, an' him say:-"Who is dat, calling me daughter name?"

Annancy let them sing the tune over and over:-

[Listen] [XML]

Yung-kyum-pyung

Eggie-Law

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone.

An' the King t'row himself off a him t'rone an' lie there 'tiff dead.

Then Annancy go up an' take the t'rone, an' marry the youngest daughter an' a reign.

Annancy is the wickedest King ever reign. Sometime him dere, sometime him gone run 'pon him rope an tief cow fe him wife.

Jack Mantora me no choose none.

NOTES.

Me, me I mus' have, etc., I will find out those girls' names. Anybody else would have said:-"Me mus' have fe find them ya (those here) gal name," but Annancy likes to add a few more syllables. His speech is Bungo talk. The Jamaican looks down on the Bungo (rhymes with Mungo) who "no 'peak good English."

abbly no me, except me.

go under the house. It is no absurdity to the narrator's mind to picture the King's house on the pattern of his own. This is a two-roomed hut, consisting of the hall or dining-room and a bedroom. It is floored with inch-thick cedar boards roughly cut and planed, so that they never lie very close. An air space is left underneath, and anybody who creeps under the hut can hear all that goes on above.

bahl, bawl.

hear it all good, hears everything perfectly.

Play up the music. He almost sings, like this:-

[Listen] [XML]

Play up the music.

all the better, all the harder.

massoo himself, lifts herself up. "Massoo" is an African word. The hall seems to have a sort of gallery.

t'row down, etc., throws herself down and breaks her neck. They always say to broke.

Dat time de King. The turning of th into a d or nearly a d is characteristic of negro speech. To avoid the tiresomeness of dialect-printing, and for another reason to be mentioned by and by, this is not always indicated. The change is introduced occasionally to remind readers of the right pronunciation.

let them sing, makes them sing.

Sometime him dare, sometimes he is there (at home), sometimes he goes and runs upon his web and steals cows for his wife. Other stories will show Annancy's partiality for beef, or indeed anything eatable.

tief, thieve.

Spiders' webs of any kind are called Annancy ropes.

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