Note 71 — Chapter XI · THE FOLK ELEMENT IN AMERICAN MUSIC

Remnants of voodooism have survived in Louisiana to our day. The language of the creole negro is a French patois. In his songs this patois is sometimes intermingled with strange words of African origin. Some still have an African refrain, though the negroes no longer understand its meaning. Lafcadio Hearn, upon asking the meaning of the words of one of these songs of a negro woman in Louisiana, received the answer: Mais c'est Voudoo, ça; je n'en sais rien! With the help of philological references Hearn actually traced the words to Africa and made sense out of them in connection with their context.