NEGRO RITES AND WORSHIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1645, 2 June 1883, Page 25

NEGRO RITES AND WORSHIP.

The immediate rites following death count as nothing in the negro conception of mortuary consequence. The grand thing is the " funeral sermon," coming sometimes years after the burial. This funeral sermon has a Bpecial dignity as well as a cost which no negro family can afford to treat lightly. For to be carried out in fitting style, several preachers are intended to officiate, who are to be entertained at a good dinner with the rare luxury of a bottle of wine, and finally are to be paid for their tribute to the dead. The funeral sermon, therefore, is postponed until the money can be saved up, and usually is delivered in August, the intermediate month between the close of the cotton cultivation and the beginning of cotton picking, a period to which the negro looks forward as a schoolboy does to his vacation. I have heard of an instance in which the stricken husband had the funeral sermon of his first wife preached one week before he wedded his second. More ludicrous still was the recent case of a negro husband, who insisted on the funeral sermon for his first wife some weeks after taking another partner. At first this sermon did not come oil at the appointed time, and his employer, meeting the husband, asked the reason of the delay. "De fac is," said the late widower, "my second wife has disobjected to dat funeral sermon. But nex' Sunday she's gwine off to visit some 'lations, and dat sermon's gwine to come off suah," and come off it did. A wedding among the Bend negroes has not often been seen by whites, and details of the rite are meagre. Up to some years after the war, both the ceremony and the certificate were dispensed with altogether, but of late, both are insisted on. Each pastor has now a form and ceremonial of his own, some of which are a most extraordinary mixture of religious and secular nonsense. A lady here, who recently attended the wedding of a former nurse of her family, gives a ludicrous description of the rite. The bride was 45 years old, the groom 20 years her junior. The officiating Baptist elder, " Uncle Dick." old, blind, and now on the retired list, " spread himself " to the utmost on this exceptional, and for him almost final, occasion. He began with the Episcopal service, gradually, drifting into Baptist and Methodist forms, punctuated with decidedly original remarku of his own, and ending with a homily to the newly wedded couple an hour long. " Now," he began (pointing to the bride) '• you's M., and you (to the groom) is N. ; and M., be mighty careful dat you don't anser for N. ; and you. N., be sartin yer don't speak for M., for we want dis heah wedding done up right and squar, sure enough." Then in thundering tones Uncle Dick proclaimed the age of the bride as well as of the groom, continuing : " Seems to me dar's most too much of a crepuncy (discrepancy) heah. Gwino to be trubble after dis wedding, shuah, if yer both of yer don't look out sharp." In his after homily Uncle Dick cited by name several local cases of notorious infidelity to the marriage relation as awful examples for the pair to shun. A number of the sinners named were present, and one was the brother of the groom. " • • Next comes the sermon. The elder almost always opens in an apologetic tone, deprecating his own physical condition. He is either " drefful hoarse from a good deal of preachin'," or " a mighty bad cold got right into " his lung ; a " mule has kicked him," or some other ailment has made him feel so badly that his auditors " musn't 'spect much dis time." Then he chooses his text, usually from Job or from " de Book of de Rebelatious," the fiery imagery of which is an inexhaustible mine for the negro exporters. Usually the sermon consists of a review of some of the metaphorical pictures of the Scripture, which the preacher describes himself as seeing. As the emotion grows on him he becomes louder in utterance and more demonstrative in movement. He prances back and forth from edge to edge of the platform, now with hands in air, now bending forward or leaping as high as he can toward the roof to express his soaring exaltation. Perspiration pours in streams down his dusky skin. At the end of every sentence he makes a loud, indescribable noise, half way between a snort and a groan, or drops his voice into a sort of parenthetical chant, made up of set phrases like "0, what a sight !" or he gives a tremendous snort, followed by a hissing expectoration. When I first saw this amazing expectoration I supposed it due to a genuine cold ; but since then I have discovered that it is a studied embellishment of negro oratory in the Bends. All through the sermon the preacher is stimulated by the chants of tho sisters, the shouts of the brethren, and a swaying, rhythmical movement which swings the whole congiegation in unison. Particularly if the elder describes some figurative combat of his own with Satan, the shouts of " Gib it to him !" " Shoot him down !" and once " Cut him wid a big razor !" m-go on the preacher to combat and almost lift the roof. His sermon usually laßts_ a full hour, with a short interval about the middle of the discourse for reßt, during which the congregation chant a hymn. Instead of closing with a peroration, the sermon ia finished off with a sort of anticlimax, the preacher's voice sinking suddenly from a yell to a few colloquial words, thanking

his congregation for their attention, and hoping his words will "beneficiate" them Words muat fail utterly to depict the absurd effect of this closing apology, or of the combination of shouts, spitting, chants, and pastoral contortions which lend their emphasis to one of theße negro discourses.

The exegesis of the Scripture by some of these black pastors will be new to the most advanced theologians. A sermon, for instance, of much local celebrity among the dusky race here is preached by one of their elders on "de horse a pawin' in de valley," and opens somewhat aa follows : "Dis horse of the Scriptur', breddering, I figurate to be de oster (ostrich). Dis oster laid five eggs in de desert, cubbered dem in de aan' for de sun of glory to hatch out, den went off to hide 'hind a stone. Dese egg, breddering, was de seeds of de church, least I figurate dey was. But five Arabs who was de persecutors of do church wanted to smash dem egg. So dey try to seek dem out, and drove de poor oster ten mile through de valley of Jehosaphat. Dey corner dat poor oster at de head of de valley, and think they hab him shuah, but suddenly de oster rose high in de mid air, and laughed dose wicked Arabs to scorn. De egg dey den hatch out, and so, breddering, came de seeds of de church to bear fruit." The description by the pastor of the " oster's " chase through the valley — the preacher all the while flapping his arms rooster fashion — was an immense sensation in its way. Some years ago, though not in a plantation church, I heard from one of those coloured elders a most j extraordinary picture of the final resurrection. This preacher — who, if I may use the paradox, was a black luminary among the coloured clergy — was an extraordinary fellow physically. He was shaped much like a hogshead of molasses, and looked as if some one had put a huge quill in him and blown him out. He wore immense double green goggles, two in front of his eyes, and another set backing on his temples — a common device of the negro' preachers to impress their congregations with their wisdom. Once during his discourse a black boy laughed. The preacher glared at him, and said: "Young man, you's a-laughin' to your own damnation. De Lord'll shake yer yet like eberything. His description of the resurrection ran as follows : " Breddering, when yer dies, yer head perhaps 'ill be in Alabama, yer body in Virginia, and yer leg in Carolina. But when dat great day comes, an' Gabriel blows de big horn, de head 'ill go up, an' de leg 'ill go up, and de head 'ill meet de leg, and say : " Where yer gwine to, leg ?" And de leg will yell, in de voice of a trumpet, ' Gwine to join de body.' " A white lady who used to attend the services of this same preacher tells me that he once said : ' ' Breddering, dose white folks thinks just 'cause dey's got money an' fine clothes dat dey's de sheep of de Scripture, while we poor black f olkß is de goats. But dat ain't so. We's de sheep, shuah, and de Lord has set his sign on us for a token ; for don't yer see der wool on our heads."

The negroes have a set of myths, some of which, in a crude way, rival and not a little resemble those of antiquity. One of them, which is told in many parts of the South as well as here, is implicitly believed by_ some of the more credulous blacks. Here it is as it comes from the lips of one of them : " Years and years ago dere wasn't but two nashuns on de earth, and both of dem was black. One nashun de Lord loved eber so much. Dis nashun he took to de banks of de blessed ribber and- say, ' Jump in.' But dey didn't like de water, so they jump and goes ober de ribber on de front ob dere hans' an de sole of de font. Dat nashun is now de black one. But de other nashun, dey jump in all ober, and became all white. Den de Lord show both nashuns two chests, one big chest and one a little feller. And he say, ' Choose ye. ?Den de black race choose de big chest and open it, and inside was a hoe, and an axe, and a spade. But de white race choose de little chest and open it, and inside was nothing but a pen and some paper. —New York Post.