Query: "Jango Lango tea" in an 1841 black minstrel song

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>       Does anyone in ads-l have any information on "Jango Lango tea"?  I
> received an inquiry about it from Norm Cohen (no relation), who informs
> me that it appears in a blackface minstrel song from 1841.  He asks:
> "Have you any references to this term?  Could it derive from Gullah, or
> does it just sound like nonsense?"
>
>     Google presents a song with "Jango Lango tea," which turns out to
> have been the song Norm Cohen had in mind. In reply to my question about
> this he wrote me:  "Yes; in fact, I wrote that comment in notes to the
> abridged edition of Randolph's Ozark Folk Songs 20 years go.  (It's
> always amusing to google something and turn up your own work.)."
>
>        "Jango Lango tea" appears in the last line, but there's something
> about this song that the ads-l server seems allergic to and my message is
> promptly rejected.  The song is available on Google (type in "Jango Lango
> tea").  I mentioned to Norm Cohen that I'd like to run a "Jango Lango
> tea" query by ads-l, and with his approval I now do so.  Any
> information/insight/etc. would be very much appreciated.  And my
> apologies for not being able to attach the two versions of the song.

Here is the stanza of interest from the Web-site:

Come all you Virginia gals and listen to my noise,
Neber do you wed wid de Carolina boys,
For if dat you do your portion it will be
Corn cake and harmony [?hominy] and Jango Lango tea.

Here is a passage (dated 1844) which pretty much comprises the "jangolango
tea" entry in David Shulman's compilation of "Culinary Americanisms" in AS
(34[1]:26-32, 1959):

... an' he'll gib you noting but hoe cake an sassafras an jangolango tea ...

I don't find "jangolango" immediately elsewhere.

I don't know what it means.

Maybe I can produce a WAG or two if nobody has anything better.

-- Doug Wilson


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