Dan Du- Large (KY) 1916 Sharp B
[My title, Sharp used the generic, The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin.]
From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians
Two Editions: Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, 1917; Sharp and Karpeles 1932 Edition
Sharp's 1917 notes: No. 33. (1917) No. 39 (1932) The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 277. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, I., art. 13; and II., art. 122. Ford's Song Histories, pp. 271-274. Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii., 223; v., 260. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 97. Ford's Vagabond Songs of Scotland, p. 192. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, vii., 253; xix., 298.
B. [Dan Du] The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin- Sung by Miss MARY LARGE at Lee Co., Ky., June, 1916
Pentatonic. Mode 3 (no 2nd).
1. There was a man lived in the West,
Dan du, dan du,
There was a man lived in the West,
Dan du, dan du ah,
There was a man lived in the West,
Who had a wife that was none of the best,
Ram yam gil-li am, dan du ah.
2 She put a cold slice on the shelf:
If you want any more you can get it yourself.
3 The man went out to his sheep-fold,
And caught the wether tough and old.
4 He threw the skin round his wife's back.
And that old sheep's hide he did whack.
5 The wife cried out unto her kin:
He's beating me on my bare skin.
6 The man he grinned and he replied:
I'm only tanning my old sheep's hide.