Old Bangum- Josephine Casey (Mo.) 1916 Belden
[From: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369; Also printed in Ballads and Songs by Missouri Folklore Society (1940) ed. by Belden.
The date of of 1638 given by Case is not an accurate ealy date for this version. Although we know the ballad may have come over from Carlisle England then, it could just as easily been learned by a Casey relative after they were here. The older Child ballads did come over in the 1600s with the first settlers but we have no way of documenting this unless there was a reference in a diary or the family songs were written down.
Notes by Kittredge follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
SIR LIONEL (Child, No. 18)
The peculiar version of this ballad known as "Old Bangum and the Boar" was discovered in Missouri by Professor Belden, who published a fragment of three stanzas in this Journal in 1906 (I9: 235).[1] In I912 he published a fragment of seven stanzas (JAFL 25 : 175-176). A Virginian version was printed (with the tune) by Professor Grainger in the "Focus" for February, 1914, 4: 48-49 (still incomplete).[2] Other Virginian copies are reported in the Bulletin of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society (No. 4, P-. 5; No. 5, p. 6). A five-stanza variant (with tune) is published by Miss McGill in her "Folk-Songs of the Kentucky Mountains" (1917), PP. 78-81. Professor Belden now communicates an excellent text, received by him in 1916 from Mrs. Eva Warner Case (see p. 322, below). This is most nearly related to Child's D and E.[3]
Meanwhile "Old Bangum" has been published in England under the title of "Brangywell" and "Dilly Dove" in two texts (with tunes) taken down in Herefordshire in 1905 and 1909. The former [see in English and Other Versions] is now reprinted for comparison. The tunes, both English and American, show considerable variety.
Bangum and the Boar
The following text (with the tune) is communicated by Professor Belden, who received it (with the tune) in 1916 from Mrs. Eva Warner Case. Mrs. Case writes: "This song was furnished me by Miss Josephine Casey, head of the domestic art department in the Manual Training High School of Kansas City, Missouri. Miss Casey is a grandniece of General Zachary Taylor, . . . president of the United States from 1849 to 1850. General Taylor and President Madison were both great-great-grandsons of James Taylor, who came from Carlisle, England, to Orange County, Virginia, in 1638, and both were hushed to sleep by their negro 'mammies' with the strains of 'Bangum and the Boar.' "
1. Old Bangum would a-wooing ride,
Dillum down, dillum down;
Old Bangum would a-wooing ride
With sword and buckler by his side.
Cum-e-caw cud-e-down
Kill-e-quo-qum.
2. Old Bangum rode to Greenwood-side,
And there a pretty maid he spied.
3. "There is a wild boar in this wood
That'll cut your throat and suck your blood."
4. "Oh how can I this wild boar see?"
"Blow a blast, and he'll come to thee."
5. Old Bangum clapped his horn to his mouth
And blew a blast both loud and stout.
6. The wild boar came in such a rage
He made his way through oak and ash.
7. They fit three hours in the day;
At last the wild boar stole away.
8. Old Bangum rode to the wild boar's den
And spied the bones of a thousand men.
Footnotes:
1 Compare Belden's Partial List, No. 3.
2 Compare Focus, 3 : 394; Virginia Folk-Lore Society, Bulletin, No. 3, p. 3.
3 Compare st. 2 with C 2, D I; 4 with C 4, D 3; 5 with C 5, D 4; 6 with C 7, D6; 7 with C 9, D 7.
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The following was printed in Missouri historical review: Volume 22; by the State Historical Society of Missouri - 1928
Now a new light has been cast on the origin of "Old Bangum" by a woman orchardist (formerly Miss Casey) of Belton, Mo., Mrs. John Van Brunt, The song, as she sings it to her grandson, is this:
Old Bangum would a-wooing ride,
Dillum down, dillum down.
Old Bangum would a-wooing ride,
Dillum down, dillum down.
Old Bangum would a-wooing ride,
With a sword and buckler by his side
Cum-e-caw cut-e-down Kil-e-quo-qum.
2 Old Bangum rode to the greenwood side,
And there a pretty maid he spied.
3 There is a wild boar in this wood
That will cut your throat and suck your blood.
Mrs. John Van Brunt, widow of the late widely known Kansas City architect, and grandniece of the former President Zachary Taylor