2. The oldest one she had a beau

3. Her beau he bought her a beaver hat,

And sister Kate got mad at that.

4. The oldest and yongest were walking the seashore;
The oldest pushed the yongest ore.

5. She bowed her head and away she swam

6. The miller threw out his big long huck
And safely brought her from the brook.

7. He took from her fingers gold rings ten
And plunged her back into the brook again.
8. The miller was hung on his own mill-gate
For robbing poor sister Kate.

LORD RANDAL (Child, No. 12).

Innumerable copies have been collected in America: see the references given by Tolman and Kittredge (JAFL 29: 157). Add JAFL 22 75, 77 (tune); 23: 443-444 (tunes); 26: 353; 27: 59, 62, 63; 28: 200-202; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 2, p. 4; No. 3, p. 3; No. 4, p. 5; No. 5, pp. 5-6; F. C. Brown, p. 9; Cox, 45: 160 (JAFL 29: 400). Miss Josephine McGill has recently printed a full text, with music, in her "Folk-Songs of the Kentucky Mountains" (New York, 1917), pp. 18–22.1

A copy from Ohio communicated by Professor John S. Kenyon of Butler College, Indianapolis, in 1914, as written down by Mr. Robert Buck, agrees with one of Professor Tolman's (JAFL 29: 157) not only in the hero's name (Johnny Ramble), but in the vigor of the bequest to his "true-love," "hell fire and brimstone."2 Another, from southern Indiana, communicated by Mr. Wallace C. Wadsworth, ends curiously:

--

"What will you will to your sweetheart, Jimmy Ransing, my son?
What will you will to your sweetheart, my dear little one?"

"A bunch of balm to make her bones grow brown,
For she is the cause of my long lying down."

This, too, is similar to Tolman's copy, just mentioned:

"All hell and damnation, for to parch her soul brown,
For she is the one that has caused me lie down."

1 For recent English tradition add Journal of Folk-Song Society, 5: 117-120, 122123, 244-248; Broadwood, English Traditional Songs and Carols, pp. 96-99; Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 18, pp. xxv-xxvi, 44-45.

2 Compare Child's A, 10: "I leave her hell and fire."

In two copies communicated by Miss Louise Whitefield Bray in 1914, as sung by New York children ("Henry, or Hendry, my Son"), a sister is the poisoner, and in one of these there is an additional stanza after the bequest of the "ropes to hang her:"

"Who will you have to the funeral, Henry, my son?

Who will you have to the funeral, my loving one?"
"All but sister, all but sister!

Make my bed; I've a pain in my side,

And I want to lie down and die."

In this same copy we have a bequest "to baby;" namely, "gods and angels" (in the other, "a kiss from heaven").

Another copy (apparently from the same source as Miss Bray's) has "guardian angels" as the bequest "for baby," and "a rope to hang her" as that "for sister." It concludes:

"Who do you want at the funeral, Henry, my son?

Who do you want at the funeral, my loving one?"

“All but sister, all but sister!

Make my bed; I've a pain in my head,

And I want to lie down and die."

"How do you want your bed made?" etc.
"Long and narrow, long and narrow.
Make my bed," etc.

This was communicated by Mr. John R. Reinhard, of Mount Holyoke College, in 1917, as taken down by one of his students who did "settlement work" in New York in the summer preceding, and heard it sung by the children.

An excellent version, genuinely traditional, and running stanza for stanza with Child's A, has been communicated by Professor Belden (1916), who received it from Mrs. Case (see p. 322, below). The tune follows:

Oh, where have you been, Lord Randal, my son? Oh, where have you been, my

handsome young man? Oh, I've been to the wildwood; Moth - er, make my bed

soon,..

I'm weary of hunting and I fain would lie down.

SIR LIONEL (Child, No. 18).

The peculiar version of this ballad known as "Old Bangum and the Boar" was discovered in Missouri by Professor Belden, who published a fragment of three stanzas in this Journal in 1906 (19 : 235).1 In 1912 he published a fragment of seven stanzas (JAFL 25: 175–176). A Virginian version was printed (with the tune) by Professor Grainger in the "Focus" for February, 1914, 4: 48-49 (still incomplete).2 Other Virginian copies are reported in the Bulletin of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society (No. 4, p. 5; No. 5, p. 6). A five-stanza variant (with tune) is published by Miss McGill in her "Folk-Songs of the Kentucky Mountains" (1917), pp. 78-81. Professor Belden now communicates an excellent text, received by him in 1916 from Mrs. Eva Warner Case (see p. 322, below). This is most nearly related to Child's D and E.3

Meanwhile "Old Bangum" has been published in England under the title of "Brangywell" and "Dilly Dove" in two texts (with tunes) taken down in Herefordshire in 1905 and 1909. The former is now reprinted for comparison. The tunes, both English and American, show considerable variety.

Bangum and the Boar.

The following text (with the tune) is communicated by Professor Belden, who received it (with the tune) in 1916 from Mrs. Eva Warner Case. Mrs. Case writes: "This song was furnished me by Miss Josephine Casey, head of the domestic art department in the Manual Training High School of Kansas City, Missouri. Miss Casey is a grandniece of General Zachary Taylor, . . . president of the United States from 1849 to 1850. General Taylor and President Madison were both great-great-grandsons of James Taylor, who came from Carlisle, England, to Orange County, Virginia, in 1638, and both were hushed to sleep by their negro 'mammies' with the strains of 'Bangum and the Boar.""

1. Old Bangum would a-wooing ride,
Dillum down, dillum down;
Old Bangum would a-wooing ride
With sword and buckler by his side.
Cum-e-caw cud-e-down

Kill-e-quo-qum.

2. Old Bangum rode to Greenwood-side,
And there a pretty maid he spied.

1 Compare Belden's Partial List, No. 3.

2 Compare Focus, 3: 394; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 3, p. 3.

3 Compare st. 2 with C 2, D 1; 4 with C 4, D 3; 5 with C 5, D 4; 6 with C 7, D6; 7 with C 9, D 7.

3. "There is a wild boar in this wood
That'll cut your throat and suck your blood."

4. "Oh how can I this wild boar see?"
"Blow a blast, and he'll come to thee."

5. Old Bangum clapped his horn to his mouth
And blew a blast both loud and stout.

6. The wild boar came in such a rage
He made his way through oak and ash.

7. They fit three hours in the day;

At last the wild boar stole away.

8. Old Bangum rode to the wild boar's den
And spied the bones of a thousand men.

Brangywell.1

From Ella Mary Leather, "The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire" (Hereford and London, 1912), pp. 202-203. From the singing of Mrs. Mellor at Dilwyn, 1905.

1. As Brangywell went forth to plough,

Dillum, down dillum;

As Brangywell went forth to plough,
Killy-co-quam;

As Brangywell went forth to plough,
He spied a lady on a bough,'
Killy-co, cuddle-dame,
Killy-co-quam.

2. "What makes thee sit so high, lady,
That no one can come nigh to thee?"

3. "There is a wild boar in the wood,
If I come down, he'll suck my blood."

4. "If I should kill the boar," said he,
"Wilt thou come down and marry me?"

5. "If thou shouldst kill the boar," said she,
"I will come down and marry thee."

6. Then Brangywell pulled out his dart

And shot the wild boar through the heart.

1 44 'Brangywell' has the g hard: the word may be a phonetic degradation of Egrabel (see Child)" (Leather, p. 204).

2 Compare the fragment of two lines in Notes and Queries, 10th Series, 2: 128:

Franky Well went out to plough,

He spied a lady on a bough.

7. The wild boar fetched out such a sound
That all the oaks and ash fell down.

8. Then hand in hand they went to the den
And found the bones of twenty men.

THE CRUEL MOTHER (Child, No. 20).

A copy from Nova Scotia was published in this Journal by Professor W. R. Mackenzie in 1912 (25: 183-184). See also Bertrand L. Jones, "Folk-Lore in Michigan," 1914, p. 5 (from South Carolina by way of Kentucky; a fragment of three stanzas); Cox, 46: 64-65 (9 stanzas with refrain; cf. Cox, 45: 159; JAFL 29: 400). See also Shearin and Coombs, p. 7; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 3, p. 3; No. 4, p. 5; No. 5, p. 6; Reed Smith, JAFL 27: 62; 28: 200-202. Words and music are given by Miss McGill, "Folk-Songs from the Kentucky Mountains," 1917, pp. 82-86 (“The Greenwood Side"). One stanza from Kentucky (with the melody) is printed in the "Journal of the Folk-Song Society," 2: 109-110. For recent English tradition see the same, 3: 70-72; Sharp, "One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 13, pp. xxiii, 35.

THE TWA BROTHERS (Child, No. 49).

For American texts see Child, 1 : 443-444 (New York and Massachusetts); JAFL 26: 353, 361-362 (Pound, Nebraska from Missouri 1); 27 59; 28: 200-201; 29: 158 (Tolman, Indiana). Compare Shearin and Coombs, p. 7 (Shearin, "Modern Language Review," 6: 514; "Sewanee Review," January, 1911); Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 3, p. 3; No. 4, p. 6; No. 5, p. 6; Cox, 45: 160 (cf. JAFL 29: 400).

A brief but impressive version (“John and William") has just been published (with the music) by Miss Josephine McGill in her "FolkSongs of the Kentucky Mountains" (1917, pp. 54-58). It contains the following stanza (6), which agrees with Child B 10, C 18:

She mourned the fish all out of the sea,

The birds all out of the nest;

She mourned her true love out of his grave
Because that she could not rest.

Compare B 10:

She put the small pipes to her mouth,
And she harped both far and near,
Till she harped the small birds off the briers,
And her true love out of the grave.

1 Compare Pound, p. 10.