1831[Oct. 1830]        Ormond, Cyprian. "The Star of St. Philippe." In _The Amethyst_, ed. by Nathan Covington Brooks. Baltimore: N.C. Brooks.

A story set in New Orleans. "Wild yet rich" rowing songs, called a "rude chaunt."

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By this time we had arrived upon the levee. The City, with its white stuccoed houses, lay on the interior of the high embankment, and the shipping, with its dark hulls and its forests of spars and rigging, upon the outside in equally profound repose. It was as bright as the sunshine of noon. The sea breeze, whose steady current came freshly up the river, wafted the musquitoes from the shore, gave us a pure reanimating atmosphere to breathe and fanned the feverish brow of my companion, who opened his bosom to the cooling air. The stillness was now and then broken by the shrill, harsh creaking of the ungreased wheels of one of those water carts, that ply daily and nightly through the streets, piercing the tortured ears of the stranger, till his hardened auriculars become habituated to the sound. In the pauses of this melody came music, floating over the waters, of a finely contrasted description. It was the rude chaunt of some negroes returning down the river to their master's plantation, and beguiling the toil of their oars with a wild yet rich and well harmonized chorus.
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