The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1888-12-26
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 26, 1888.
WALKING EGYPT"
A Singular New Year Custom Among the
Nep,rnea of the Snnfh

WALKING EGIPls
A Singular New Year Custom Among the
Negroes of the South.
N1zzzzMzzA> + the old slave
!. !. ]: ! !: !. !.
NM. customs of the
tEAE A " southern s ia tes /,
<eSN& AZ "a now that the ne
s1AzEKW q groes have been
I'M free for nearly o
M@ F. 7 quarter of a CEN
MM1 fury, many are OBJ
W.T. " solete. The "old
%Mh..s sperretuals,n as the
SNz@AzSo> aged colored Chris
tians call their peculiar hymns, are either
given up entirely or modernized and refined
till they are barely recognizable. But as the
old goes and the new takes its place, we can
still see-and it is persistence of type"
worth the attention of philosophers-tha the
genius of the original African is still there.
The song may be an adaptation from Watts
Hymns; but all the same it is an Africanized
Watts
When a traveller or man of science attends
''colored revival" in the back districts Of
the gulf states and hears this roaring chorus
from one thousand throats-
see st. Petah a standin' in the do,
An all my friens what went befo,
Dip In the Golden Seal
o, dip me, battle me, sstahs, you;
o, brothers, won't you help me through
Well all ride behind the milk white steeds-
an dip in the Golden Sea.
he perceives at once that this is African,
not Saxon, imagery. And by the eye of
scientific faith he can looa back 300 years tic
the Tina when the ancestors of these people,
under the palm or on the sandy shore, sang
and rioted in praise Of Bennamucka or
Mumbo Jumbo
The negroes have also had one experience
common to all freed people. At first there
was violent reaction against everything
that belonged to slave times; they carefully
discarded the most trifing customs which
might serve to imply slave origin. By and
by, when their freedom was an assured thing
and taken as q matter of course, there was q
counter reaction; they took up the old songs
and customs, but gave them tone that i'm
piled sense of deliverance. Thus, "Roll
Jordan, roll, y became an emancipation song
and "Old Nicodemus' was completely trans
formed. And by similar evolution one
phase Of the old CUBA dance" became
"Walking Egypt" This is, in plain English
only a mildly religionized form Of the walk
ing dance or dancing walk which the Afri-
cans, like all heather people, have always
had. The Indians "corn dance and "sun
dance" are but variations Of the same thing.
But "Walking Egypt" as it now is, dates
from emancipation, and is performed OF
New Years eve-that is, when they "watcf
the old year out and the new year inn Ont
description, by white lady who saw it from
the gallery of Georgia church, is as fol
lows:
1.-THE leader took his place on the floor ant
began the wild, half barbaric chant; thei
one by one, as the excitement grew, thu
others followed. Soon the whole line was il
tremor of excitement, and shouts and I'm
provised lines like these:
Who's dat yondah dressed In blacks
Oh. it's an angel dressed in black.
''The walk is by aslight forward jerk of thu
foot As the walkers warmed to their worl
and grew wilder in their movements It wai
easy to SEQ why the better educated coloret
people are opposed to the walk; for the mer
and women took most abandoned attitudes
The scene recalled pictures of the orgies oil