How Come That Blood? Burke (TX) 1938 Owens A
[From Texas Folk Songs; William Owens, 1950; with music. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
HOW COME THAT BLOOD ON YOUR SHIRT SLEEVE- Owens 1950 Texas Folk Songs
This ballad came to me first as a fragment from Mrs. C. H. Burke of Silsbee. Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Thompson had arranged for me to record at their home. When I had the recording machine set up they sent for Mrs. Burke, only to be told that she had gone to the woods to pray, as she did every morning. After a while she came to the house and though it was against her religion, sang a dozen or so songs, among them "The Boston Burglar" and "Little Mohea." She finally told me that she knew one more song, but that it was too old for me to want. She sang enough of it, however, for me to recognize it as "Edward."
It was several years before I located a complete version of the song. This time the singer was Mrs. Ben Dryden of the Sandy Creek settlement. Since then I have found several more versions, but none as full as Mrs. Dryden's. I heard all of these in Southeast Texas and was unable to find the song elsewhere in the state. Collectors from other parts of the United States have reported it only a few times.
The version printed by Bishop Thomas Percy (Reliques of English Poetry; 3 vols., 1765) is a story of patricide, with a suggestion of incest as the motive. In the versions I have found the crime in invariably fratricide, and there is no hint of incest. The murder always grows out of an argument over cutting down a juniper tree.
In one Texas version the answer to the opening question is, "It is the blood of my guinea gew hawk," and the song is called "The Guinea Gew Hawk." It apparently has no relation to "The Gay Goshawk."
A. How Come That Blood? Sung by Mrs. C. H. Burke, Silsbee, Texas, 1938.
[music upcoming]
"How come that blood on your shirt sleeve,
My son, come telling to me?"
"It is the blood of my own brother dear
That worked in the fields with me."
"What did You kill him for, my son,
My son, come telling to me?"
"I killed him for cutting yonders bush
That might have made a tree."
"What will you do when your father comes home,
My son, come telling to me?"
"I'll set my foot on Yonder ship
And sail across the sea."
"What will you do with your children three,
My son, come telling to me?"
"I'll leave them here with my own mother dear
To keep her company."
"What will you do with your pretty little wife,
My son, come telling to me?"
"I'll take her by her lily-white hand
To sail along with me."
"When you coming back to see your children three,
My son, come telling to me?"
"Whene'er the sun sets on yonders green hill,
Which you know will never be."