Banks of the Barbry-O: Ladeau (VT) 1939 Flanders D
[My abbreviated title; alternately titled "Bank Robber's Wife" by Flanders in her collection. From Flanders, Version D in Ancient Ballads, 1960. Coffin's notes follow. This version seems suspicious for two reasons, first- it was based on a print version from Comfort Magazine (it's odd this magazine would print rare ballad lyrics); and although the informant knew the melody- it was not recorded. Being a protege of Barry, Flanders knew that the text was only half the ballad so why did she not collect this or send Olney out to follow up?
R. Matteson 2014]
Babylon
(Child 14)
This song is quite hard to find in Anglo-American tradition, although it is known to most of the Germanic peoples. It has been collected in New England, the Maritime Provinces, and the Appalachians, but has not been popular enough to spread West.
The Flanders A version, in which the youngest sister kills the brother, is unique to America. The B-D texts follow the Child A story and seem to have borrowed from "High Barbary" in their refrain. Phillips Barry (British Ballads from Maine, 72) found a fragment in Maine which seems to relate to Child F, and he also points out in BFSSNE, VII,6, that Child E, from G. R. Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballad's ([London, 1827], 212), introduces the girl's brother as a means of thwarting the robber. The villain is to be hanged or fed to toads or rattlesnakes, even though the rattlesnake is not found in Britain. However, there cannot be much variation in a ballad tradition as sparse as that of the Anglo-American "Babylon."
Consult coffin, 46-47 (American); and Greig and Keith, 15 and l2l (Scottish), for further remarks and bibliography.
All three of the tunes for Child 14 are related. The Porter tune corresponds to BC1 group B, while the Moses and Barton tunes belong with BC1 group A. The beginning of Barton, however, corresponds to that of Porter. For melody relationships for all three, see GN, 10 and Maud Karpeles Folk Songs from Newfoundland (1934), II, 78-82. Evidently this tune family is restricted to northeastern North America.
D. Mrs Ella Grow Ladeau, of Norwich, Vermont, was reminded of this song when reading its words some years ago in the Comfort Magazine. She remembered its tune when she had, heard, it sung among people living in Sheldon Springs, Vermont-though could not exactly say whose tune it was. H. H. F., Collector; November 3, 1939.
On the Pretty Bonny Banks of the Barbry-O
Three pretty maids were out walking one day,
Hi-in the lea and the lone-O,
A-picking flowers as they go,
On the pretty bonny banks of the Barbry-O.
(Follow the pattern of first stanza in the following stanzas.)
When some stranger came in view,
. . . .
He took the oldest by the hand,
He turned her round and made her stand,
Saying, "Will you be a bank robber's wife,
Or will you die by my penknife?"
"No, I will not be a bank robber's wife, ''
But I will die by your penknife."
He took the next oldest by the hand
And turned her round and made her stand,
Saying, "Will you be a bank robber's wife,
Or will you die by my penknife?"
"No, I'll not be a bank robber's wife
But I will die by your penknife."
He took the youngest by the hand,
He turned her round and made her stand.,
Saying, "Will you be a bank robber's wife,
Or will you die by my penknife?"
"Yes, I will be a bank robber's wife
But I'll not die by your penknife.
"If my two brothers had been here,
You would not have killed my sisters, dear."
"Who are your brothers and what do they do?"
"One is a minister and the other like you."
"My God, my God, what have I don't
I've killed my sisters all but one."
And then he took out his penknife
And there he ended his wretched life.