OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH
8. Babylon; or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie (Child 14)
This ballad, like 'Edward,' is found both in Scotland and in Scandinavia; in Scotland in the latter part of the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth century, in Scandinavia at the same time and also somewhat earlier. Since Child's time it has been found but seldom, and more often in America than in the old country; in Newfoundland, Maine, and Vermont (see Barry's note. BFSSNE VII 6), in Virginia (FSV 9), and in Tennessee (BTFLS VIII 69-70). It has been found once in North Carolina.*
'Baby Lon.' Found by Mrs. R. C. Vaught at Oakboro, Stanly county, in 1935; she does not now remember from whom she got it, but probably from one of her pupils in the school there. Why there are three lines in the first stanza but only two in the others does not appear.
1 There were once three ladies in a bower
Who went out one sunny day
To gather the summer flowers.
2 They hadn't picked but one flower each
When they spied a young man by their side.
3 He['s] taken the oldest one by her hand.
He's put her on a bank and made her stand.
4 'Just hear; will you be my wife,
Or will you die by my keen, sharp knife?'
5 'Oh, sister, sister, he's taking my life.
For I'm going to have to die by his keen, sharp knife!'
6 He['s] taken her and put her to bed,
To seek for the love[d] ones gone on ahead.
7 He's taken the next one by her hand,
He's put [her] on the bank and there made her stand.
8 'Now Hsten, will you be my wife,
Or will you die by my keen, sharp knife?'
9 'Oh. sister, sister, I'll not be his wife.
But rather die by his keen, sharp knife.'
10 He's taken her and put her to bed,
To see the love[d] ones who have gone ahead.
11 He's taken the youngest one by her hand,
He's put her on the bank and there made her stand.
12 He says, 'Will you be my wife,
Or will you die by my keen, sharp knife?'
13 'I will not be your wife,
Nor will I die by your keen, sharp knife.
14 'For I have a dear one near by,
And if you kill me, he'll sure kill thee.'
15 'Who is thy dear one? Pray tell to me.'
'Do you not know him? It is dear Baby Lon.'
16 'Oh, is this my sister? Come, tell me true.
And I have killed my older sisters, too?'
17 'You have killed them, dear brother.
This evil, bad evil I have seen you do.'
18 'God in heaven won't forgive me.
But he true* till at judgment we meet thee.
19 'Then our evil deeds done here,
Will be placed on us up there.'
20 He['s] taken his keen, sharp knife
An enticed his heart to be nobody's wife.-''
* Here again probably an attempt to indicate Frye's clipped utterance
of "hazel."
^ There are in the Collection two other copies of the ballad, l)ut they
seem to be merely writings out of Child's A version and are tlicrefore
not presented here.
'^ I do not know how this line should run. Should "he" be read "he"?
' Just how this last line is to be construed is not apparent, but pre-
sumably it means that he stabbed himself.