Old Woman By The Seashore- Monnett (OK) 1937 Botkin C
[From The American Play-Party Song; Botkin, 1937 version C. Botkin's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
For dance usage, cf. Hudson (Culture in the South), p.524; Pound (Poetic Origins and the Ballad), pp. 53, 54; Thomas (Kentucky) pp. 3-5. Raine (The Land of Saddle-Bags, p.17) notes: " 'Bowee down!' and 'Bow and balance to me!' are a remnant from an old dance jingle, which was occasionally sung by dancers even after the music was furnished by the fiddle."
As is related to the square dance, "Two Little Sisters."
C. THE Old Woman By The Seashore
(Mrs. L. T. Monnett, Norman, cleveland County, who played it in Missouri.)
1 The miller he courted the eldest one,
Bow down, bow down.
The miller he courted the eldest one,
For the bow was bent for me.
The miller he courted the eldest one,
Although he loved the youngest one.
Bow down, tiddle tum tee.
2 He gave to the youngest a beaver hat, etc.
' The eldest she got mad at that, etc.
3 He gave to the eldest a diamond ring,
Into the water she did fling.
4 O sister, take a walk with me
To some foreign countree.
5 She threw her over a high stone wall.
Into the water she did fall.
6 O sister, reach to me your hand,
And I will give you house and land.
7 O no, I'll not reach to you my hand,
And I don't want your house and land.
8 Sometime she sank and sometime she swam
Until she reached the miller's dam.
9 The miller he reached out his hook and line.
Out of the water she did climb.