The Blaeberry Courtship- McAllister (IL) 1922 Eddy
[From: Traditional Texts and Tunes by Albert H. Tolman and Mary O. Eddy; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 35, No. 138 (Oct. - Dec., 1922), pp. 335-432. Their notes follow.
The refrain is similar to Child 226.
R. Matteson 2013]
226. LIZIE LINDSAY.
The Blaeberry Courtship.
"The Blaeberry Courtship," or "The Blaeberries," which seems to be founded on the traditional ballad of "Lizie Lindsay," has not, I think, been hitherto found in the United States; but Mackenzie prints a text from Nova Scotia ("The Quest of the Ballad," pp. 233--234).
See Ancient Scots Ballads, 248; The Popular Songs of Scotland, 264; Scots Minstrelsie, ii, 216; The Songs of Scotland, 118; Handbook of the Songs of Scotland, ed. by William Mitchison, 1851, 17; Songs of the North, ed. by Macleod, Boulton, and Lawson (1885), 66 (with air); Stokoe, Songs of Northern England, 62-63. [Also: Ford, Vagabond Songs, ii, 77-82, and Auld Scots Ballants, 121-125; Whitelaw, The Book of Scottish Ballads, 1845, 276-278; Gavin Greig, xliii; The Goldfinch [chapbook], J. Marshall, Newcastle, 12-16; broadsides printed by George Walker, Jr. [Durham] and Stephenson [Gateshead], and a Glasgow chapbook ["The Blaeberry Courtship:" Harvard College 25276.43. 23, No. I], "printed for the Booksellers."]
Obtained through Professor Edith Foster Flint of the University of Chicago, and Mrs. M. P. Starr of Chicago, from Mrs. Annie McAllister, Winnetka, Ill., an aged Scotchwoman, who learned the words from her mother.
I. In the Highlands of Scotland there dwells a young man;
He's well educated, as we understand;
2. He's awa' to the Lowlands to ask for a bride,
And he's rolled himself up in a bra tartan plaid.
3. It's "Will you come wi' me," said he, "bonnie lassie;
Oh, will you come wi' me those Highlands to see? "
4. "I'll no leave those Lowlands nor brown corn-fields,
Not for all the blay-berries your wild mountain yields."
5. Down comes her father, a gray-haired old man:
"Could you not get a mistress in all your own land?
6. "But small entertainment's for our Lowland dames,
For to promise them blay-berries on your wild heathery plains."
7. Down comes her mother, her daughter to advise,
Saying, "If thou go with him, thou wilt not be wise.
8. "He's a real rakish fellow, and as bare as the cra';
He's a king to the Katherines [worms] I for a' that we kna'."
9. She's awa' now, poor thing, she's awa';
She's awa' to a place her two eyes ne'er saw.
10. "Don't you remember, school-fellows were we?
I was slighted by all the house, darlin', but thee.
11. "These lands and fine livings were all gie'd to me;
And I wooed you, my darling, to share them with thee.
12. "You're welcome from . . , you're twice welcome home,
And welcome as mistress to Bailywell Toun."
Refrain
Milka' coos [cows], lassies, and come away home.
Put on your hat, farmer, for that is too low,
For a peacock to bow to a crow.