Dost think, because thou art znrtuous, there shall be no more
cakes and ale? — Yes, by Saint Anne, and ginger shall be hot i"
the mouth, too.
* I ^HAT ballad singers in North Carolina, as elsewhere, find the
-^ tragedies of life and especially of love the most appealing sub-
jects for song does not mean that they sang no merry ballads. They
knew and sang, and still sing, store of merry songs, some of them
of as venerable age as the tragic ballads. Some of them indeed
are in the Child collection and are given above: 'The Farmer's
Curst Wife'; 'Our Goodman,' which is a tale of cuckoldry ; 'The
Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin,' which tells how to deal with a
shrewish wife; and 'Get up and Bar the Door,' which shows that
a woman will have the last word. Other comic ballads too deal
with domestic problems as do the tragic and romantic ballads. 'The
OLDER BALLADS — MOSTLY BRITISH 439
Holly Twig' tells how a man ran through the whole gamut of
marital infelicity in the successive clays of one week; 'The Dumb
Wife' shows that a man with such a treasure should know enough
to keep her such; 'The Old Dyer' is a fabliau, a tale of cuckoldry
like 'Our Goodman'; 'Father Grunihle' illustrates in lively fashion
what happens when the husbandman undertakes the housewife's
functions ; 'Johnny Sands' and its companion piece 'The Old
Woman's Blind Husband' tell how a woman tries to get rid of an
undesired husband by drowning him and is instead drowned or at
least ducked herself. A woman's determination to get herself a
husband is presented in various ways: in 'Whistle, Daughter,
Whistle' a girl declares herself unable to whistle in response to
her mother's various bribes until the mother promises her a man,
whereupon she whistles fast enough; in 'Hard of Hearing' an old
woman recovers her hearing when she receives what she takes for
a proposal ; 'Nobody Coming to Marry Me' is a young girl's com-
plaint about the lack of wooers; 'Billy Grimes the Drover' satirizes
a girl's, and her mother's, attitude on the question of marriage;
'Grandma's Advice' and 'Common Bill' treat the girl's feeling in a
lighter manner. There are also gibes at certain trades : in 'The
Miller and His Three Sons' the miller examines his three sons and
gladly wills his mill to the youngest, who vows that he'll steal all
the corn and swear to the sack ; 'The Three Rogues' that come to a
bad end are a miller, a weaver, and a tailor. Occasionally appear
satires on other races or nationalities: 'Bryan O'Lynn' was origi-
nally a gibe at the Scotch but has been transferred to the Irish;
'The Three Jolly W^elshmen' pokes fun at the Welsh and in some
versions at the Scotch and the Irish. The humor of exaggeration
is exemplified in 'The Derby Ram.' 'The Swapping Song' and
'The Good Old Man' show the singer delighting in nonsense for
its own sake. The humors of courtship are dealt with separately
later, in volume III.
176
The Derby Ram
This bit of folk humor holds its place in the affections of the
people pretty well. See BSM 224, and add to the references there
given Virginia (FSV 134-6), Kentucky (BTFLS iii 95), North
Carolina (FSRA 182), Missouri (OFS i 398-400), Ohio (BSO
199), Indiana (BSI 319-21), and Michigan (BSSM 460-3).
A
'The Great Sheep.' Reported by Thomas Smith in 191 5, as sung "by
Mrs. Polly Rayfield, who named two people she had heard sing it 40
years earlier. Mrs. S. Chaney Smith, of Silverton, over 84 years old.
heard it many years ago." (Mrs. Isenhour, of Zionville, also sang stanza
3 for Dr. Brown.)
440 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
1 The greatest sheep that ever was found
Weighed eleven hundred pounds.
Chorus:
Urn ta diddle ta diddle urn ta diddle ta day^
2 Every foot it had covered an acre of ground.
3 The wool on the sheep's back, it growed to the sky ;
The eagles built their nests, for I heard the young ones cry.
4 The sheep's horns, they growed to the moon ;
They started in February and never got there till June.
5 The wool on the sheep's belly dragged the ground.
Wasn't that the biggest sheep ever was found ?
B
No title. Contributed by Wm. C. Gumming, of Brunswick county, with
the notation: "Mother told me of a Negro song that she thought was
brought to Kentucky by a cousin of my Grandma's, who married a
wealthy slave owner in Louisiana. The words, which were sung to a
weird air, are in part as follows" :
1 As I went to Darby, sir,
As I went one cloudy day,
I saw the biggest ram, sir,
That ever fed on hay.
2 It had four feet to walk, sir,
It had four feet to run,
And every foot it had, sir.
Covered an acre of ground.
3 It had four eyes to see, sir,
It had four eyes to see,
And every eye it had, sir.
Was looking straight at me.
The tune was sung by Otis Kuykendall of West Asheville in 1939.
-------------
176
The Derby Ram
'The Great Sheep.' Sung by Mrs. Isenhour, of Zionville, Watauga county.
Recorded as Ms score; no date or place given. Our text is practically identical
with that of the second stanza of SharpK 11 186, No. 141 C, as well as OFS i
400, No. 106C. There is no chorus in our version.
For melodic relationship cf. **OFS i 398, No. 106A, first four measures;
BSI 319-21, measures 1-2.
Scale: Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aa^bb^ (2,2,2,2) :=
ab (4,4).
B
'Darby's Ram.' Sung by Otis Kuykendall. Recorded at Asheville in 1939. The
singer gave this title. Note the differences in text. The chorus is sung after
every other stanza. The melodic material of measures 4-8 and 12-15 is the
same. The use of it, however, is the noteworthy feature.
For melodic relationship cf. *3i FSSM 8-9, stanza only.
Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: e-flat. Structure: abchMd^e (2,2,2,2.
2,2,4) = abed (4,4,4,4).
2 It had four feet to walk, sir,
And it had four feet to stand.
And every foot it had, sir.
Covered an acre of land.
3 This old ram had horns, sir,
That reached up to the sky,
An eagle built a nest there;
I heard the young ones cry.
4 This old ram had wool, sir.
That reached up to the moon,
A nigger went up in January,
And he didn't come back till June.
'Big Sheep.' Sung by Doyle Pruitt. From the previous recording of Dr. W. A
Abrams ; no date or place given. Another title is 'Darby's Ram.'
Scale : Heptachordal, plagal. Tonal Center : f. Structure : aba^b^ (4,4,4,4) =
aai (8,8).