Thanks richiematt and Masato. In an earlier note, I related how Fletcher Collins suggested that "Shiloh" might have had something to do with crap-shooting:

"I shared with Fletcher Collins what we had come up with here. He was quite interested, especially in the Lafcadio Hearn piece. He suggested the possibility that "shiloh" might be related to the "game of craps", as something you say when you roll the dice. Anybody know about this?"

The song collected by Hearn, suggests a number of possible contexts: gambling, dancing, working, minstrel show, etc. It would be very interesting to come up with some other examples of similar songs.