The Wee, Wee Man (Child 38)
Child has seven versions of this ballad, all rather closely alike and all from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Since that time I find no trace of it until it appears in the present collection. That the North Carolina text is a version of Child 38 there can be no doubt, though it is modernized here and there in an interesting way, e.g., in stanzas 2 and 7.
No title. Sung by Saunders of Salem, Forsyth county. The manuscript bears no date.
1. Oh, I went walking one fine day
Upon the Gomont pier O.
I saw a little fairy man
No bigger than my ear O.
2 He wore a coat all gold and green,
No bigger than a thimble,
But he was strong as any buck
Like a gandy dancer[1] nimble.
3 I took him up and I set him down
And I put him on my knee.
And then he threw a mitched[2] stone
As far as I could see.
4 I told him he was a fine, brave man
And as strong as he could be.
And he said to me, 'My bucko lad,
Come you along with me.'
5 So I went his way along the lane;
And soon we found a castle,
And a fine naked ladd[3] came out
To see if I would rassle.
("One stanza Mr. S. censored here, a description of the girl's physical qualities. He didn't know me well enough." Note on the manuscript.)
7 She was the gayest wench for bed
I ever saw in all my life;
If Elder Thomson[4] had been there
She could have been his wife.
8 We lay in a bed all covered with pearl,
And I did often kiss her.
And now at night alone in my bunk
I surely do miss her.
9 When I woke up and found her gone
I knew I could not stay.
So I spied around for my little man;
But he had gone away.
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Footnotes:
1. A gandy dancer, according to Weseen's Dictionary of American Slang and Berrey and Van den Bark's American Thesaurus of Slang, is a railroad section hand. The phrase is not entered in NED or DAE.
2. Miswritten or misheard, presumably, for "mickle. '
3. What follows indicates that "ladd" is miswritten for "lady."
4. In this line Child's versions A-K have "the king of Scotland." Elder Thomson seems to be an American figure.