Perry Merry Dictum Dominee- Schrader (Illinois) c.1880
[Perry Merry Dictum Dominee is listed by Tolman, as a version of Child 46 Captain Wedderburn's Courtship. I'm including it here, more properly, as an Appendix with "I Gave My Love a Cherry (see: 46 A.)". Child lists Halliwell's version in his 3rd footnote:
3. Halliwell's Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, p. 150; Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, No 375; Notes and Queries, 3d Ser., IX, 401; 4th Ser., III, 501, 604; Macmillan's Magazine, V, 248, by T. Hughes. The first of these runs:
I have four sisters beyond the sea,
Para-mara, dictum, domine
And they did send four presents to me.
Partum. quartum, paradise, tempum,
Para-mara, dictum, domine
The first it was a bird without eer a bone,
The second was a cherry without eer a stone.
The third it was a blanket without eer a thread,
The fourth it was a book which no man could read.
How can there be a bird without eer a bone?
How can there be a cherry without eer a stone?
How can there be a blanket without eer a thread?
How can there be a book which no man can read?
When the bird's in the shell, there is no bone;
When the cherry's in the bud, there is no stone.
When the blanket's in the fleece, there is no thread;
When the book's in the press, no man can read.
[Tolman lists it under Child 46 Captain Wedderburn's Courtship.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014.]
From: Some Songs Traditional in the United States
by Albert H. Tolman
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 29, No. 112 (Apr. - Jun., 1916), pp. 155-197
46. CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP
American texts of No. 46: this Journal, xxiii, 377; xxiv, 335 (Barry).
Perry Merry Dictum Dominee (Allied to 46).
This version was obtained from Miss Emma Schrader, Chicago, "as heard in Chebanse, Ill., about 1880." Two other texts received agree closely. Belden, No. 142. Child prints an English version "from a manuscript assigned to the fifteenth century," also one that is more modern (I, 415 and note). [See Mrs. Valentine, Nursery Rhymes, Tales, and Jingles, No. 304, pp. 171-172; [W. A. Wheeler], Mother Goose's Melodies, New York, 1877, pp. 53, 82-83; Folk-Lore Journal, 1885. iii, pp. 272-273; Miss M. H. Mason, Nursery Rhymes & Country Songs [1878], pp. 23-25 (2 copies); Baring-Gould, A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes, No. 64, pp. 78-79 (cf. pp. 157-158); Crane, Baby's Bouquet.]
I. I had four brothers over the sea;
Perry merry dictum dominee;
And they each sent a present unto me.
Partum quartum pere dicentum,
Perry merry dictum dominee.
2. The first sent me cherries without any stones;
Perry, etc.
The second sent a chicken without any bones.
Partum, etc.
3. The third sent a blanket that had no thread;
The fourth sent a book that could not be read.
4. When the cherries are in blossom, they have no stones;
When the chicken's in the egg, it has no bones.
5. When the blanket's in the fleece, it has no thread;
Perry merry dictum dominee;
When the book's in the press, it cannot be read.
Partum quartum pere dicentum,
Perry merry dictum dominee.