Pretty Goli- Yeater (MO) 1913 Belden F
[My title, taken from the name the parrot calls her. From Ballads and Songs; Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society; Belden 1940. Uses the "Lord Lovel" form.
R. Matteson 2014]
F. ["Pretty Goli."] No title. Contributed by Miss Frances Yeater of the University of Missouri in 1913.
'Go bring me some of your mother's gold,
And some of your father's fee,
And two of the very best nags in the stall
'Wherein there are thirty and three, three, three,
Wherein there are thirty and three.
(Repeat thus the last line of each stanza.)
She brought him some of her mother's gold,
And some of her father's fee,
And two of the very best nags in the stall
Wherein were thirty and three.
She mounted on the milky white steed
And he on the dapple gray,
And they rode and they rode till they came to the sea
Six hours before it was day.
'Mount off, mount off that milky white steed
And deliver it unto me.
Six pretty maids have I drowned in the sea
And the seventh shall be thee.'
She took him in her two strong arms
And she threw him into the sea:
'Six pretty maids has thou drowned in the sea
But the seventh shall drown thee.
'Lie there, lie there, you hard-hearted wretch,
Lie there, lie there,' said she;
'Six pretty maids hast thou drowned in the sea
But the seventh shall drown thee.'
She mounted on the milky white steed
And she led the dapple gray.
She rode and. she rode till she came to the house
Three hours before it was day.
Up up spoke the pretty parrot,
'Which in the house did stay:
'What is the matter with our pretty goli [1]
So long before it is day ?'
'Hush, hush, hush, my pretty parrot,
Don't tell no tales on me;
Your cage shall be of the purest gold
And the doors of ivory.'
1. McIntosh's Illinois text has here 'golin.' Perhaps a form of 'colleen.'