Farmer's Curst Wife- Nash (NL) 1961 Peacock B
[This variant B was collected in 1961 from Patrick W. Nash of Branch, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, p.266, by The National Museum of Canada (1965).]
B. The Farmer's Curst Wife -Sung by Patrick W. Nash of Branch, NL, 1961 (Collected by Kenneth Peacock).
There was an old farmer lived under the hill,
And if he's not dead he's livin' there still.
The devil he came along one day,
And these were the words I heard him say.
He did he, he did he, fall dall the doo.
"I need a good hand to help me in hell,,
You or your son would do very well."
"Now you can't have me nor my good son,
You can have me old wife for she drinks rum."
He did he, he did he, fall dall the doo.
And then he pelted her up on his back,
Just like an old peddler carrying his pack;
But then he came in sight of hell
Saying, "This is the place where you have to dwell."
He did he, he did he, fall dall the doo.
And then he opened a big iron door,
He pelted her in with a thousand or more.
Ninety-nine devils strung up on a wire,
She up with her leg and kicked nine in the fire.
He did he, he did he, fall dall the doo.
So then he pelted her up on his back,
And like an old fool he carried her back;
But when he came in sight of home
She tore the flesh off the devil's backbone.
He did he, he did he, fall dall the doo.
Some of the women are worse than the men,
When they go down to hell they're sent back again.
I went back for the jug that I left on the shelf,
If you want any more you can sing it yourself.
He did he, he did he, fall dall the doo.