THE
(A study of the Negro Race)
Part 1:
Their Basic Savagery
All: Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room,
Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable,
Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table,
pounded on the table,
Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom,
Hard as they were able,
Boom, Boom, Boom,
With a silk umbrella and handle of a broom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom.
Then I had religion, Then
I had a vision.
I could not turn from their revel in derision.
Solo 1: Then I saw the
Cutting through the
jungle with a golden track.
All: Then along the river bank
A thousand miles
Tattooed cannibals dance in files:
Then I heard the boom of the blood-lust song,
And a thigh-bone beating on a
tin-pan gong.
And “BLOOD” screamed the whistles and fifes of the
warriors,
“BLOOD” screamed the skull-faced lean
witch-doctors,
“WHIRL” ye the deadly voo-doo
rattle,
Harry the uplands,
Steal all the cattle,
Rattle-rattle, rattle-rattle
Boomlay, Boomlay, Boomlay, Boom.
Girl 2: A roaring, epic, rag-time tune
From the mouth of the
To the Mountains of the moon.
Solo 3: Death is an Elephant,
Torch-eyed and horrible,
Foam-flanked and terrible,
All: Boom, steal, the pygmies,
Boom, kill the
Arabs,
Boom, kill the white men.
Hoo, Hoo,
Hoo.
Solo 4: Listen to the yell of leopold’s
ghost
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell
Listen to the creepy proclamation,
Blown through the lairs of the forest-nation,
Blown fast the white ants’ hills of clay
Blown past the marsh where the butterflies play;
All: “Be careful what you do,
Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the
And all of the other Gods of the
Mumbo Jumbo will hoo-doo you,
Mumbo Jumbo will hoo-doo you.
Mumbo Jumbo will hoo-doo you,
Solo 5: Wild crap-shooters with a whoop and a
call
Danced the juba in their gambling-hall,
And laughed fit to kill, and shook the town,
And guyed the policeman and laughed him down
With a boomlay,
boomlay, Boom.
Solo 1: Then I saw the
Cutting through the
jungle with a golden track.
All: A negro fairyland swung into
view,
A minstrel river
Where dreams come true.
The ebony palace soared on high
Through the blossoming trees to
the evening sky.
The inlaid porches and casements shone
All: With gold and ivory and elephant-bone.
And the black crowd laughed till their sides were
sore
At the babon
butler in the agate door.
And the well-known tunes of the parrot band
That trilled on the bushes of that magic land.
Four Boys: A troop of skull-faced witch-men came
Through the agate doorway in suits of
flame—
Yea, long-tailed coats with a gold-leaf crust
And hats that were covered with
diamond-dust.
And the crowd in the court gave a whoop and a call
And danced the juba from wall to wall
Girl 2: But the witch-men suddenly stilled the
throng
With a stern cold glare, and stern old song:
“Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you.”
Solo 6: Just then from the doorway, as fat as shotes
Came the cake-walk princes in their long red
coats,
Canes with a brilliant lacquer shine,
And tall silk hats that were red as wine.
All: And they pranced with their butterfly partners there.
Coal-black maidens with pearls in their hair,
Knee shirts trimmed with the jassamine
sweet
And bells on their ankles and little black feet
Solo 6: And the couples railed at the chant and
the frown
Of the witch-men lean, and laughed them down.
Girl 2: Oh, rare was the revel, and well worth
while
That made those glowering witchmen smile.
Solo 7: The cake-walk royalty then began
To walk for a cake that was tall as a man
All: To the tune of (“Boomlay, boomlay, BOOM,”)
Solo 7: While the witch-men laughed, with a
sinister air,
And sang with the scalawags,
prancing there:
Solo 8: “Walk with care,
Solo 9: “Walk with care,”
All: Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the
And all of the other Gods of the
Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you.
Solo 8: Beware, beware, walk
with care,
All: “Boomlay, boomlay,
boomlay, boom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, boom.”
Girl 2: Oh, rare was the revel, and well worth
while
That made those glowering witch-men smile.
Solo 10: A good, old negro
in the slums of the town
Preached at a sister for her
velvet gown.
Howled at a brother fro his low-down ways,
His prowling, guzzling,
sneak-thief days.
Beat on the Bible till he wore it out,
Starting the jubilee revival shout.
All: And some had visions as they stood on chairs,
And sang of
And they all repented a thousand strong,
From their stupor and savagery and sin and wrong,
And slammed,
their hymn-books till they shook the room
With “Glory, glory, glory”
And “Boom, boom, boom”
Solo 1: Then I saw the
Cutting through the
jungle with a golden track.
Solo 11: And the gray sky opened like a new-rent
veil
And showed the apostles with
their coats of mail.
In bright white steel they were seated round,
And their fire-eyes watched where the
And the twelve apostles, from their thrones on
high,
Thrilled all the forest with their heavenly cry:
All: “Mumbo-Jumbo will die in the jungle;
Never again will he hoo-doo you.
Never again will he hoo-doo you.”
Solo 12: Then along that river, a thousand miles,
The vine-snared trees fell down in files.
Pioneer angels cleared the way
For sacred capitals, for temples clean.
Gone where the skull-faced witch-men lean;
There, where the wild ghost-gods and wailed,
A million beats of the angels sailed
With oars of silver, and prows of blue,
And silken pennants that the sun
shone through.
Solo 13: ‘Twas a land
transfigured, ‘twas a new creation.
Oh, a singing wind swept the Negro nation,
And on through the backwoods clearing flew:---
All: “Mumbo-Jumbo is dead in the jungle.
Never again will he hoo-doo you.
Never again will he hoo-doo you.”
Solo 14: Redeemed were the forests, the beasts and
the men,
And only the vulture dared again
By the far lone mountains of the moon
To cry, in the silence, the
All: “Mumbo-Jumbo will hoodoo you,
Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,
Mumbo…Jumbo…Will…Hoo-doo…you.”