Dandoo- Conway (VA) 1915 Davis G
45. THE WIFE WRAPT IN WETHER'S SKIN-- From: Traditional Ballads of Virginia
(Child No. 277)
A dozen texts and two melodies of this ballad have been recovered in Virginia, most of them under the usual American title of "Dandoo," the rest under the Child title, except for one called "Dindo-Dan." As the texts are all short and as they show considerable minor variation, especially in the character and position of the burden, all twelve items, varying in length from three to nine stanzasrare given here. All these variants would seem to belong to a single version, one which does not appear among the regular Child versions, though a somewhat similar text is printed in Child's final Additions and Corrections, V, 304. They belong rather to the usual American "Dandoo" version, variants of which have been printed by Belden, Campbell and Sharp, Cox, Pound, and others (see below). The Virginia texts follow the B rather than the A version of Miss Pound's American Ballads and Songs, No. 6.
The story told often in fragmentary form by the following texts is the usual one of an unruly wife reformed by a beating, responsibility for which the husband escapes by the technicality of wrapping his wife in a wether's skin and beating the skin. Child has pointed out that the story of the ballad is probably traditionally derived from the old tale of "The Wife Lapped in
Morrel's Skin," Morrel being the husband's old horse fayed to assist at the wife-taming.
For American texts, see Belden, No. 12 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 4, 5, 7-10 Campbell and Sharp, No.33 (Virginia, Kentucky; cf. Sharp, Songs, I, No.6); Child V, 304 (Massachusetts from The Journal of American Folk-Lore VII, 253); Cox, No. 29; Hudson, No. 21 (and Journal, XXXXIX, 209; Mississippi); Journal, VII, 253 (Newell, Massachusetts); XIX, 298 (Belden, Missouri); xxx, 328 (Kittredge, Missouri, fragment); Pound, Ballads, No. 6; Shearin and Combs, p. 8 (fragment). For additional references, see Cox, p. 159; Journal, xxx, 328.
G. "Dandoo." Contributed by Miss Ellen Dana Conway (teacher of history in the High School), of Pocahontas, Va. Spottsylania County. October 28, 1915.
Miss Conway's accompanying letter is a good illustration of the spirit in which ballads were sent in, especially by the teachers of the state: '-While reading the current issue of the Journal of Education this evening, I saw your plea for information concerning certain ballads. Among them I noticed one entitled 'The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin' and I saw that it was also called 'Dandee' [misprint for 'Dandoo']. There is an absurd old song called 'Dandoo' which as a child I often heard sung in my native county of Spottsylvania, that may perhaps be a much mangled version of the ballad you mention. There is a very slight vague suggestion of likeness in the names and in the story related in each. This resemblance is, however, so problematical as to recall the case of the student who said he was sure the name Middletown was derived from Moses, and when asked how he derived it, said he did so by 'eliminating oses and adding iddletown.' The cases are quite similar.
"I never saw the song in print, of course, and remember only a fragment of it, together with the fact that it had a very monotonous air and was warranted to put the crossest baby to sleep in ten minutes - a measure of self-defence on the child's part, no doubt.
"Under the circumstances, I wouldn't have risked wasting your time in sending the thing, except for your statement that 'any fragment of one of these ballads will be a veritable treasure trove to the Virginia Folk-Lore Society.' Far be it from a mere history teacher like me to lose any chance of presenting these good folks with a treasure trove! I am therefore sending you on a separate sheet what will no doubt prove to be a perfectly useless version of a singularly idiotic old song. If so, pray excuse me, for as my laundress says, 'I means well."'
1 There was an old man who lived in the west,
He had a wife, she was none of the best.
Dandoo! Dandoo!
2 When this old man came in from the plow,
"Pray wife, is supper ready now?"
Dandoo! Dandoo!
3 "There's a piece of bread upon the shelf;
If you want any more you may cook it yourself."
Dandoo ! Dandoo !
4 He laid a switch on his wife's back,
And make it go ty-whick-e-ty-whack.
Dandoo! Dandoo!
5 "I'll tell mother and father and brothers three
What a terrible whipping you gave me."
Dandoo! Dandoo!