On page 248 of his book American Negro Folk-Songs, Newman Ivey White mentions that Dorothy Scarborough included a reference to the cat verse on page 106 of her 1925 book.

As I noted in my 25 Sep 09 - 10:59 PM post to this thread, I didn't find any "cat verse" on page 106 of Dorothy Scarborough's On The Trail Of Negro Folksongs (Folklore Edition,1963, p. 190; originally published in 1925 by Harvard University Press)

"Mrs Ratcliffe of Natchez has two felines in a fragment of a folksong she gave me:

Mary, she did dream a dream,
As she was floating down the stream.
When she woke, she gave a sigh,
The grey cat kicked out the black cat's eye!

-snip-

It turns out that there is indeed a version of "the cat verse" on page 105 of the Folklore Associates edition of Scarborough's book. I think that it's important to note that this verse is given as part of a 'complete' "Jim A-long, Josie" song. For the purpose of comparison, I'm going to refer to the following version of the cat verse as "Scarborough cat verse, version #1", or simply version #1 (because it was the earliest version given in her manuscript). I 'll refer to the verse that was given later in Scarborough's manuscript (quoted above) as Scarborough cat verse, version #2, or simply version #2.

Here's the comments Scarborough gives about that song (found on page 104 of the Folklore Associates edition), followed by the portion of the "Jim A-long, Josie" song up to and including Scarborough's cat verse, version #1:

"A well known dance-song of the old times was Josieof Jim A-long, Josey, which I have often heard my mother sing. My cousin, Mrs. E. H. Ratchliffe, of Natchez, Mississippi, also gave me a part of the version given below:

JIM A-LONG, JOSEY

O, I'se from Louisiana, as you all know,
Dat whar Jim A-long, Josie's all de go.
De n****rs* all rise when de bell do ring,
And dis is de song dat dey do sing!

Chorus

Hey, get a-long, get a-long, Josey,
Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long, Jo!
Hey, get a-long, get a-long, Josey,
Hey, get a-long, Jim a-long, Jo!

My sister Rose de udder night did dream
Dat she was floating down de stream,
When she woke up she 'gin to cry,
And de white cat picked pit de black cat's eye.

Chorus

[Two additional verses are given]
* The full spelling of the "n word" is given in that book. I substituted asterisks for some letters of that word e "n word" because I intensely dislike reading or hearing that word.

Note the similarities and differences between version #1 and version #2, including the different female name, and the different colors of the cats. It's also significant that version #1 is given in dialect (for instance, the use of "de" instead of "the"), while version #2 is not.
The locations of the two informants are probably the same (Natchez, Mississippi-version #1, and Natchez-version #2. And the surnames of the informants for both versions are very similar (Mrs. E. H. Ratchliffe, of Natchez, Mississippi-version #1, and Mrs. Ratcliffe, for version #2). However, Dorothy Scarborough describes Mrs. E. H. Ratchliffe as her cousin, but gives no information about who Mrs Ratcliffe is (other than a woman from Natchez who sent her a fragment of a folksong whose title was also not provided). It appears to me that Dorothy Scarborough was a meticulous collector and presenter of the songs, and information about the songs that she remembered and that she received from others. Given the high quality of her folkloric research, I believe that Dorothy Scarborough would have noted if version #2 was part of the "Jim A-long Josie" song and if the same informant of version #1 (her cousin) gave a variant version of that verse (version #2). All of this to say, I believe that version #1 and version #2 are from two different informants, albeit from the same city, and with very similar last names.
It's possible that these two variants could have been from the same time period. However, given Dorothy Scarborough's comment that she often heard her mother sing that "well know dance-song of the old times, Josey or Jim A-long, Josey", it seems reasonable to conclude that version #1 is an earlier version of the song than the version #2 fragment.
Furthermore, the version #2 fragment could have been from an entirely different African American song since Black people then (and now) often combined (combine) verses from one song into another.   For instance on page 248 of Newman Ivey White's book (whose link Stewie thankfully gave above but I'll give it again http://books.google.com.au/books?id=WCuuV-kRe70C&pg=PA248&lpg=PA248&dq=Dan+Emmett+%2B+black+cat+and+white+cat&source=bl&ots=aT2T), White mentions the cat verse being included in the song "Jinny Git Your Hoe-Cake Done"

I'll share more comments about this cat verse in my next post to this thread.


Azizi Powell