Redio-Tedio: Young from Sybil Emery (ME) 1882 Barry A
[From British Ballads from Maine; Barry, Eckstorm and Smythe; 1919, version A. This version of Child 2- The Elfin Knight was sung by Mrs. Susie Carr Young of Brewer, Maine; She learned it from Sybil Emery in 1882. A similar version titled, "The Cambric Shirt" with a recording was collected in nearby Eddington, Maine from Mrs. Gray in the early 1960's. See her version in my collection with a link to the recording.
R. Matteson 2011]
REDIO, TEDIO Sung by Mrs. Susie Carr Young, Brewer, Maine; Learned from Sybil Emery in 1882. Melody recorded by George Herzog, see Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth, 1929, pp. 3-4 and also The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads, Bronson.
(he) I want you to make me a cambric shirt
Fum-a-lum-a-link, sup-a-loo-my-nee
With neither seam nor needlework
Redio, tedio, toddle-bod-bedio
Fum-a-lum-a-link, sup-a-loo-my-nee
(she) I want you to buy me an acre of land
Between salt water and the sea-sand.
Plow it o'er with an old buck's horn
Plant it o'er with one peppercorn.
Reap it down with a peacock's feather
Bind it up with the sting of an adder.
Thrash it out with a mouse's tail
Cart it in on the back of a snail.
When you have completed your work
Come to me, you shall have your shirt.