11. The Wee, Wee Man


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.