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One more valiant soldier here,
To help me bear de cross.
O hail, Mary, hail!
Hail, Mary, hail!
Hail, Mary, hail!
To help me bear de cross.
I fancied that the original reading might have been “soul,” instead of “soldier,” --with some other syllable inserted to fill out the metre,--and that the “Hail, Mary,” might denote a
Roman Catholic origin, as I had several men from
St. Augustine who held in a dim way to that faith.
It was a very ringing song, though not so grandly jubilant as the next, which was really impressive as the singers pealed it out, when marching or rowing or embarking.
V. My army cross over.
My army cross over,
My army cross over,
O, Pharaoh's army drownded!
My army cross over.
We'll cross de mighty river,
My army cross over;
We'll cross de-river
Jordan,
My army cross over;
We'll cross de danger water,
My army cross over;
We'll cross de mighty Myo,
My army cross over. (
Thrice.)
O, Pharaoh's army drownded!
My army cross over.
I could get no explanation of the “mighty Myo,” except that one of the old men thought it meant the river of death.
Perhaps it is an African word.
In the Cameroon dialect, “Mawa” signifies “to die.”
