Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/394

NEGRO IN AMERICA. is the industrial education of the negro, the encouragement of land-ownership by those who are now tenants, and the general extension of education. (See .) The plan has already produced valuable results. Graduates of institutions like (q.v.) and Hampton Institute have proved that under the leadership of members of their own race negro communities are capable of rapid improvement, economically and morally. See ;

. Bruce, The Plantation Negro as a Freeman (New York, 1889); Ingle, The Negro in the District of Columbia (Baltimore, 1893); Gannett, Statistics of the Negroes in the United States (Baltimore, 1894); Du Bois, The Philadelphia Negro (Philadelphia, 1899); id., The Negroes of the Black Belt (Washington, 1899); Washington, The Future of the American Negro (Boston, 1899); id., Up From Slavery (New York, 1901); Montgomery Conference Proceedings (Montgomery, 1900); Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America (New York, 1902). See also references under ; .  NEGRO MELODIES. The music of the American negroes is essentially vocal. Their few musical instruments are of importance only for furnishing accompaniments to songs or for accenting the rhythm of the dance. During the last twenty years negro music has been steadily losing its distinctive features, owing to the tendency among the younger generation to discard everything which harks back to the days of slavery. The old plaintive melodies have been replaced largely by more modern comic and erotic songs which are cast in a nondescript Afric-European mode.

Negro songs may be divided into two general groups: those which show evidences of foreign origin, but which have been added to and changed until they are undeniably negro in character; and those which are the spontaneous expression of the negro's own feelings. The first group may be subdivided into (a) those derived from European songs and dances, and (b) those adapted from Baptist and Methodist hymns. The original negro songs, whose most typical element is a weird recitative, have undoubtedly an affinity with the musical forms used in Africa, but they have been greatly expanded both rhythmically and melodically. Though it is possible to make some such analysis of negro melodies, the most important feature, their interpretation, cannot be adequately described. Impromptu chords, notes, and accents are introduced, the whole blending into unusual forms with strikingly original melodies and motives. Strange to say, the time structure is excellent, and the tempo is universally exact. The tunes have as a rule a range of few notes, and, as in Africa, the major key predominates. In some songs both the major and minor keys are used. The weird effect produced by many of their cadences is not as a rule due to the use of the minor key so much as to the employment of the pentatonic scale, and the major scale with the flat seventh. A distinctive character of negro melodies is the ‘rhythmical snap’ which became such an overworked feature in ‘ragtime.’ See ;. Consult: Ritter, Music in America (New ed., New York, 1900); Edwards, Bahama Songs and Stories (New York, 1895); Marsh, The Story of the

Jubilee Singers and Their Songs (Boston, 1880); and Trotter, Music, and Some Highly Musical People (ib., 1878).  NEGRO MONKEY. (1) A sooty black langur (Semnopithecus maurus), about 24 inches long, plus a still longer tail. The animal is well known in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Its young are reddish in color and grow black with advancing age. (2) A marmoset (Midas ursulus) of Brazil, also called ‘negro tamarin,’ and often tamed. It is black with a reddish dorsal stripe.  NEGROS,. One of the Philippine Islands, belonging to the Visayas group. It lies between the islands of Panay and Cebú. It is separated from Panay and the small island of Guimarás on the northwest by the Strait of Guimarás, eight miles wide at the narrowest, and from Cebú on the east by the Strait of Tañón, from 6 to 22 miles wide (Map:, G 10). On the north the island borders on the Visayan Sea, and on the southwest and south it is washed by the Sulu Sea, which to the southeast separates Negros by a distance of 30 miles from Mindanao. The island is roughly rectangular, but very elongated in shape. Its length is 134 miles, and its average breadth 26 miles, increased near the southern end to 34 miles by a broad, rounded peninsula, extending from the western coast. Its area is given as 4839 square miles. Including a number of small dependent islets, the area is 4854 square miles. It ranks fourth in size among the Philippine Islands.

The coasts are clear and steep, but very little indented, and afford no harbors except a few anchorages sheltered by the small adjacent islands. The whole interior consists of a mountainous plateau with a central ridge running the entire length of the island and dividing it into two distinct halves, forming its two political divisions. The active volcano of Canlaón or Malaspina, situated in the north central part of the island, is 8192 feet high. The range terminates at the north in the remarkable isolated peak Solitario. The two slopes are eroded into numerous lateral valleys watered by short and generally simple streams, the largest being on the western slope. In the southern part are two remarkable mountain lakes, the larger six miles long. The mountains of the interior are covered with vast forests of valuable timber, among which the teak is prominent. The soil is everywhere fertile and well watered, and agriculture is the principal occupation. The chief products are cacao of an excellent quality, hemp, sugar-cane, coffee, rice, tobacco, cotton, and cereals. The fisheries are next in importance to agriculture, and cattle-raising also receives considerable attention, large numbers of horses, carabaos, and hogs being raised.

The chief manufactures are abaca, cabo negro, sugar sacks, and sugar, the last-named manufacture employing hydraulic and steam machinery. Means of communication are very poor. Coasting vessels are almost the only means of communication between the towns. These are nearly all situated on the coast, the interior being a wilderness. The population of the island in 1901 was estimated at 372,000. The prevailing race is the Visayan, and the Visayan is the language most spoken. The forests of the