Story: Playing Dead
Storyteller: George W. Edwards (Green Bay, Antigua)
Book: “Folklore from Antigua, British West Indies” in The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 34
Author(s): John H. Johnson
Published: 1921

Notes: I have removed the eye-dialect but other than the spelling, the language is as Mr. Edwards told the story. Johnson did not record the tune for the song.

Grandeman the Cat

There was a pussy by the name of Grandeman. He platned about six acres of cane. And every day Bro’ Ratta would take all his family and go in and eat this cane down. As smart as Pussy was, he couldn’t catch none of the rat there.

One day one of the children of Bro’ Ratta come out and saw a man lyin’ down in the road. And this man was Grandeman, and he was dead. he was only playin’ dead, you know. This little child saw Grandeman. He turn about, he gleeful now. He start to sing:
Ringee dingee ging dada,
Ringee dingee ging dada,
Ringee dingee ging dada,
Oh, Grandeman dead!
And we, and we get free.

This big rat and wife and children all come out to see if it was true. When they come, all see this Grandeman lyin down dead. Bro’ Ratta say must make a funeral for him.

Well, they dig a hole. And they made a coffin and put him in. But they didn’t put no cover for the coffin. They carry the coffin and lay it over the dead. He start to preach the sermon. This was the sermon: “For this six years we have been eatin’ down Bro Grandeman cane, and now he dead. And we, and we free.
Ringee dingee ging dada,
Ringee dingee ging dada,
Ringee dingee ging dada,
Oh, Grandeman dead!
And we, and we get free.

They all singin’ now. Bro’ Ratta go on. “And now we are goin’ to lay his remains in the grave. Sing, my children!” And they start:
Ringee dingee ging dada…

But when they all say the first “dada,” Bro’ Grandeman jump up, and the first one he grab was Bro’ Ratta. He break his neck, pop! The children and the mother start to run and fall in the grave. He kill every one, and then throw Bro’ Ratta in too.

I was to the funerall too, and get a glass and a kick!
So the lead bend,
So the story end.

Sugarcane workers in Puerto Rico from Picryl, https://picryl.com/media/sugar-cane-worker-in-the-rich-field-vicinity-of-guanica-puerto-rico