Pretty Polly- Cutting (NY) 1944 Cutting A
[From Edith E. Cutting, Lore of an Adirondack County (1944) pp.61-64; Both the parrot and girl are named Polly. I assume John Cutting is her father or uncle. Biography from on-line, then brief notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Edith E. Cutting – teacher, author and folklorist – was born in the Essex County town of Lewis, on a small family farm. She attended the New York State College for Teachers, where in 1936 she enrolled in an elective course in American Folklore, taught by Dr. Harold W. Thompson, a founder of the New York Folklore Society. Thompson encouraged his students to interview their friends and families and collect examples of their old customs, stories and sayings, to make them aware of their heritage and their communities. Research from this first class project was later published in 1944 by Cornell University Press as Lore of an Adirondack County, the first such published collection of any North Country folklore materials. It contains fascinating tales, weather lore, games, ballads and songs shared by older men and women of the Champlain Valley whom she had known as a child.
Notes: The first version, which was recited by Mr. John Cutting, has a rather unusual reference to nettles. There is a similar line in Professor Child's variant F.
PRETTY POLLY- John Cutting, from Essex County New York
"Oh, bring to me your father's purse,
Likewise your mother's pearls,
And two of the best nags in the stable
And ride along with me."
She mounted onto her milk-white steed,
And he the dapple gray.
They rode till they came to the lone sea-shore
Some hours before it was day.
"Jump in, jump in, my pretty fair maid,
And don't concerned be,
For six only daughters I have drowned in the sea,
And thou the seventh shall be.
"Undress, undress, my pretty fair maid,
And don't concerned be,
For 'tis a pity those fine silken clothes
Should rot at the bottom of the sea."
"If I have to undress, pray cut those nettles low,
For they would pierce my lily-white flesh."
He stooped to cut those nettles low,
Behold the leaves so green:
She caught him 'round the middle so small,
And tumbled him into the stream.
"Lie there, lie there, false-hearted man.
Lie there instead of me,
For these six only daughters you have drowned in the sea
And the seventh has drowned thee."
She mounted on her milk-white steed
And led the dapple gray.
She rode till she came to her father's house
One hour before 'twas day.
"Well turned, well turned, my pretty parrot,
Well turned, well turned, I say.
Your cage shall be made of the glittering gold
And hung in the willow tree."
The parrot was hung in a window so high,
"Where have you been, my pretty Pollv,
So long before 'twas day?"
Her mother laid in the chamber above,
Heard what the parrot did say,
Said, "What is the matter, my pretty parrot,
That you prattle before 'tis day?"-
"Don't prattle, don't prattle, my pretty parrot,
Nor tell any tales on me,
And your cage shall be made of the glittering gold
And hung on the willow tree."
"Lie still, lie still," cried pretty Polly [the pretty bird]
"And don't concerned be,
For a cat had got on the window so high.
I was calling to pretty Polly to drive the cat away."-