Butcher Boy- Simmonds (Nevis) c.1965 Abrahams
[From: Charles Walters: West Indian Autolycus by Roger D. Abrahams; Western Folklore, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Apr., 1968), pp. 77-95; Western States Folklore Society. His notes follow. Collected in British West Indies islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis by Abrahams between 1962 and 1966. Collected from islanders who were influenced by Charles Waters (c. 1900), a talented blind musician.
R. Matteson 2017]
Charles "Johnny" Walters was born in Rawlins, Nevis, around the turn of the century, and it was there that he made his home for the rest of his life. He was not born blind, but his eyes were never very strong and by 1921 he was completely sightless. Around that time he began to practice his profession of ballad-mongering, which provided his livelihood.
One singer, Maybelle Simmonds of Lowlands, Nevis, seems to have remembered Walters' songs more completely than any other informant. She sang "The Butcher Boy" in the following way:
In American City where I dwell,
A butcher boy I love so well.
He courted me my heart away,
And then with me he would not stay.
Moo-ma, moo-ma, you do not know,
You do not know the reason why.
You do not know the reason why,
Because he have more gold than I.
His gold will melt and silver fly,
And he will be as poor as I.
His gold will melt and silver fly,
And he will be as poor as I.
Oh, see him yonder sitting down,
Oh, see him yonder spinning wheel.
He took a fair girl on his knee
And told her all he has done to me.
Oh, give me a chair and set me down.
A pen and ink to write it down.
And every line e' dropped a tear,
And crying for her daughter dear.
Crying "What a foolish girl she are,
To hang herself for a butcher
Crying, "What a foolish girl she are,
To hang herself for a butcher boy."
Upstairs she went, a door she broke,
And found her hanging on a rope.
He drew his knife and cut it down,
And in her bosom feel-I was found[1].
Oh, dig his grave both wide and deep,
That I and he might bury there.
A marble stone to his head and feet,
I'll tell the world I died for love.
1. Miss Simmonds' explanation: she fell down. Other renditions from Nevis have the more common note in the bosom.