Note 2 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
One is given by Mr. G.W. Cable in the Century Magazine, xxx. 820, as a Louisiana Voodoo song:
Héron mandé, tigui li papa, Héron mandé, dosé dan godo.
Another by Mr. W.E. Burghart Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk, p. 254—apparently a lullaby:
Doba na coba gene me, gene me! Ben d' nu li, nu li, nu li, nu li, bend'le.
I can make nothing of these. In the latter case, uncertainty as to the phonetic system adopted complicates the puzzle. One might be tempted to connect the last two words with Zulu endhle or pandhle = outside,—but I can find nothing else to support this resemblance, and such stray guesses are unprofitable work.