THE work of traditional fancy in and about Washington divides naturally into three branches: negro tradition, children's tradition, and adult tradition. These of course overlap each other, but not so as to cause any practical inconvenience in writing of them.
The exclusively negro traditions consist of tales, games, and hymns, with some superstitions and peculiar practices. A good part of their folk-lore proper is of white derivation, or passes into that of the white race. They also preserve some songs which are unmistakeably of English ballad origin, though not as yet discovered among white children. But the subdivision, as a whole, is very well marked, its roots being in the African nature, not the European. I have made only one or two slight incursions into this field, which I reserve for future effort.
Fragments of the second class have appeared in Lippincott's Magazine and elsewhere; but I expect shortly to make a more full and systematic representation in the Anthropologist of this city. I have been able to collect about a hundred games, involving some literary or fanciful element, without going even into our suburbs. No doubt there are many ears left for the gleaner.
The adult traditions take one farther afield, the wonder-tales in particular being scattered at irregular distances up or down the river. Each belongs to a place, and may be considered as an attempted explanation of something unusual also belonging thereto. I will begin with them.
