Note 78 — Chapter XLIX · Plantation Negroes—Incidents and Characteristics.

This they call “mourning for their sins, as the angels mourn.” The sounds were certainly the reverse of angelic. There are no words in the “mourning;” it is simply a nasal, aggressive, persistent boo-hoo, in chorus, by half the women present. Not a tear is to be seen, and the girls often rise from their knees, and in half an hour are begging the overseer for a drink of whisky.