Bamboo Briars- Minnie Doyel (MO) 1917 Barbour/ Belden B/ Pound A
[From Belden's Songs and Ballads (1940) and also Pound (1922).
R. Matteson 2016]
The Bamboo Briars- Text from H. M. Belden, who had it from Miss Frances Barbour of Washington University, who had it from the singing of Minnie Doyle of Arlington, Phelps County, Missouri, in 1917.
One night as they was sitting courting
Two villains overheard,
Saying, "This courtship it shall be ended,
We will send him along to his grave."
And to conclude this bloody murder
A-hunting these two villains did go.
. . .
. . .
They travelled over hills and hollows
And places too that was not known,
Until they came to the bamboo briars,
And there they killed him— killed and thrown.
. . .
It is "Dear brothers, where have you been?
The reason I ask you seems to whisper[1]
Dear brothers, tell me if you can."
One night as she was lying weeping,
He came to her in gory blood,
Saying, "What do you weep for, you harmless creature?
Your brothers killed me, killed and thrown.
. . .
. . .
"And was by being both rash and cruel[2]
In such a place you can me find."
She travelled over hills and hollows
And places too that was not known,
Until she came to the bamboo briars,
And there she found him killed and thrown.
She stayed three days, hunger came on her,
Then she returned back home again.
It is, "Dear sister where have you been?
The reason we ask you seems to whisper,
Dear sister, tell us if you can."
"You are two hard-hearted, deceitful villains,
For him alone you both shall swing."
And, dear friends, if you'll believe me,
The raging seas provide their grave.
1. "I ask because I see you whisper" Broadwood's Hertfordshire text.
2. Shearin's text: "Your brothers being both rash and cruel"