Suriname folk-lore

[p. t.o. iii]

Plate I. At the Central Market-place, Paramaribo.

[p. v]

To Franz Boas

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Preface.

The field work from which the material in this volume derives was carried on in Dutch Guiana, South America, during the summers of 1928 and 1929, and included study of both the coastal Negroes and the Bush-Negroes of the upper Suriname River. Of the work among the latter group, only such results as deal with their folklore and their music, - the proverbs we recorded while among them, and the songs they sang into our phonograph, - are here given. The description of their culture, and the comparison of its elements with the cultures from which these originated, must be reserved for separate treatment. Except for Bush-Negro proverbs and songs, therefore, this work is concerned with the Negroes of the coastal region of the Colony, or, more strictly speaking, of the city of Paramaribo, where the greatest portion of the ethnological information, and the tales, were gathered. Relevant details bearing upon the manner of collecting the data are included in the notes which introduce each of the separate sections.

Our first field trip was made under the auspices of the Columbia University Council for Research in the Social Sciences; our second under those of Northwestern University; and both were made possible by the generous support of Dr. Elsie Clews Parsons. It is a privilege to express here our deep appreciation to Dr. Parsons, not alone for this support, but for the initial indication of Suriname as a fruitful area for research into African survivals in the New World, and for the many suggestions concerning the handling of the data which she has given us. To Professor Franz Boas we are indebted for much that we can name - the endorsement of the Suriname project, its direct sponsorship, and counsel on method - and for much more that does not lend itself to enumeration, above all, the inspiration of his work.

Once in the field, we found a livery interest in our problem and a desire to help us achieve our aims. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the cordiality which the stranger meets in the Colony, for no effective work could have been done without the sympathy and cooperation of Whites as well as Negroes. His Excellency, Governor H.H. Rutgers, himself a scientist, and the Hon. Frans J.L. van Haaren, first Colonial Secretary and later, during our second visit,

[p. viii]

Attorney-Generail of the Colony, extended to us all possible courtesies, both scientific and personal, while Mme. Gay Schneiders-Howard, Mrs. James Lawton, Miss L. Gans, Dr. P.W.H. Lampe, Mr. Alexander Woolf, Mr. J.W. van Lier, and many others, allowed us to share their knowledge of the customs and beliefs of the people we had come to study.

To our native informants, we record the gratitude that all fieldworkers must hold toward those who give them the information that is the basis of scientific work in anthropology, - a gratitude that is a primary obligation when, as in the case of many of those who worked with us, and whose names appear in the list of informants, we were permitted to share the beliefs which govern their inner lives. To all these, and to those whose names we have promised not to publish, - like the priestess of the wɩnti-dance we describe, and her group, - as well as to those others, more casually met, who gave us information of value, we add to our appreciation for their confidence regard for them as individuals. We should like, however, to name two of them here, - Frederik Bekker and Edwin Bundel. These men, who made the largest contributions to this work, were not only of invaluable assistance to us, but stood out among our native acquaintances for a fulness of knowledge of their own culture.

Many others have aided us in the prosecution of our research. Dr. Morton C. Kahn of Cornell University Medical College, whom we accompanied during our first summer in the Colony, gave us freely of his earlier experience in Suriname, indicating many short-cuts that greatly helped us in making the most efficient use of the time at our disposal. Furthermore, our good health during our field work in Dutch Guiana, and later in West Africa, we hold due in very large measure to his Spartan training in tropical hygiene. We also wish to express our gratitude to Dr. Charles G. Aars, of the Military Hospital in Paramaribo, and his colleagues, for their medical attention and friendly advice concerning life in the Colony; to Dr. Parsons and the Columbia University Council for Research in the Social Sciences, for further grants which made possible the publication of the folk-lore and ethnographic notes in this volume; to the American Council of Learned Societies, for one grant which provided for the preservation of the wax phonograph cylinders on which our songs were recorded, and for another which supported the cost of printing the music contained in this work; to the Social Science Research Council of Northwestern University, for funds which aided the transcribing of the music and helped us in the task of working up our field notes; to Dr. M. Kolinski, for the care which he exercised in the difficult work of writing and analysing the music, and for the excellence of his transcriptions; to Dr. George Herzog and Miss Helen Roberts, for their suggestions and aid in assuring the correct translation of the technical musical terms from Dr. Kolinski's original

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German manuscript; to Miss Dorothy Burdette, for the drawings of the kerchiefs we figure; to Mrs. P.H. Erbes, for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript; and finally to our friends, Jonkheer L.C. van Panhuys and the late Dr. H.D. Benjamins, for having read and commented on portions of this work before it was published, as well as for many other favors during the course of our investigation.

Melville J. Herskovits

Frances S. Herskovits

Evanston, Illinois,

September, 1932.