44 A. Hares on the Mountain (Bronson Appendix)
[I'm following Bronson and including the related ballad, Hares on the Mountain ("Blackbirds and Thrushes" and "Sally, My Dear") as an appendix to Child No. 44 A.]
CONTENTS:
1. Bronson's Narrative
2. My Brief
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: Hares on the Mountain
A. Roud Number 329: Hares on the Mountain (105 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: Hares on the Mountain (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
3. US & Canadian Versions
4. English and Other Versions
44 Appendix: Bronson's Narrative- Hares on the Mountain
[upcoming]
Brief by Richard L. Matteson Jr.
This ballad loosely follows the story line of the Twa Magician, who change from one appearance to another to catch the other. Bronson includes this song/ballad as an appendix to Child 44, The Twa Magicians. It was first published appearance in 1837 book, Rory O'More, by Samuel Lover. Here's the excerpt:
Rory O'More- Page 234 by Samuel Lover - A song was next called for from the girl who sat beside Rory; and after a proper quantity of hemming and hawing, and protestations that she was very hoarse, she sang with a good voice, whose natural sweetness seemed to have been rendered coarse by exposure to weather, the following song:
Oh! if all the young maidens was blackbirds and thrishes,
Oh ! if all the young maidens was blackbirds and thrishes,
Oh ! if all the young maidens was blackbirds and thrishes,
It's then the young men would be batin' the bushes.
Oh! if all the young maidens was ducks in the wather,
Oh! if all the young maidens was ducks in the wather,
Oh! if all the young maidens was ducks in the wather,
It's then the young men would jump in and swim afther.
Oh! if all the young maidens was birds on a mountain,
Oh! if all the young maidens was birds on a mountain,
Oh! if all the young maidens was birds on a mountain,
It's then the young men would get guns and go grousin'.
If the maidens was all throut and salmon so lively,
If the maidens was all throut and salmon so lively,
If the maidens was all throut and salmon so lively,
Oh! the divil a one would ate mate on a Friday.
The song's popularity in the British Isles is well documented and it has been found rarely in the US & Canada. One of the earliest reported US versions, a fragment titled, "If Girls They Were Ducks" was found in Illinois (1907) and perhaps dates back to the 1800s (Doren; JOAFL):
If girls they were ducks and would swim on the ocean,
The boys would turn drakes and follow the motion.
Sing hi away, he away, he!
In the US the verses have expanded and have been attached to other song choruses to become the bawdy "Creeping and Crawling/The Knife in the Window" and similarly bawdy once popular college song, "Roll Your Leg Over" that still retains the verse form of "Hares on the Mountain." The endless number of verses of "Roll" include:
If all the young ladies were bricks in a pile
I'd be a mason and lay them in style.
and...
If all of the girls were fish in the ocean
And I was a wave I would teach them the motion.
The "O Sally, My Dear," has text elements of "Knife in the Window" also known in the US under the floating title, "Pretty Polly." Here's a typical opening verse:
O Sally My Dear, your clothes they do hinder
O Sally My Dear, your clothes they do hinder
O Sally My Dear, your clothes they do hinder
She laughed & replied "There's a knife by the window*"
To me wack fol de diddle i-do
& me wack fol de day {chorus variable)
* presumably pronounced in demotic fashion as 'winder'?
And a verse collected by Sharp connecting the ballad:
If the women were hares and raced round the mountain,
If the women were hares and raced round the mountain,
How soon the young men would be busy a hunting!
Sing fal the diddle i do,
Sing whack fal the diddle day.
Most versions of "Knife in the Window" and "Creeping and Crawling" are missing the standard verses found in Hares on the Mountain ("Blackbirds and Thrushes"). Without that element (If all of the girls were fish in the ocean, then I'd...), the songs aren't, in my opinion, part of the "Hares on the Mountain" song family but are related bawdy songs with similar form.
R. Matteson
Louisville, KY