The Cambric Shirt- Bost (NC) 1937 Brown A
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore; The typed MS may be viewed on-line. This was sent in by Mary Bost, 1917-1979(?), a student of Dr. Abrams, from the singing of her mother Mrs. John S. Bost [J. Anne Bost], 1901-? . The Bost's where from Statesville, Iredell County, North Carolina; sent in September, 1937.
Brown's notes follow. At the bottom of the page is a musical adaptation of Bost's text by Mrs. York in 1941, it is unknown whether she took this from Bost's singing.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Elfin Knight (Child 2)
This set of courting riddles, commonly known in this country as 'The Cambric Shirt,' though not very old (the earliest text known to Child was a seventeenth-century broadside), has persisted rather well both in the old country and in America. It has been reported from tradition in Ireland, Aberdeenshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Sussex, Wiltshire, and Somerset, and in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina (apart from the present collection), Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, and California.
It has two chief types of refrain, one of which, "rosemary and thyme," undergoes strange transformations on the tongues of singers — none stranger, perhaps, than the "arose Mary in time" and "Rose de Marian time" of texts A and B below. The other type, represented in text C below, seems to be only American. It is recognizable in Child's version J, which came from Massachusetts, and in texts from Maine, Vermont, Indiana, Missouri, and Texas, but I have not found it in British texts.
A. 'The Cambric Shirt.' Sent in by Professor W. Amos Abrams, formerly of the Appalachian State Teachers College, Boone, Watauga county, as secured from Mary Bost, of Statesville, Iredell county.
1 As I went through Wichander's town,
Arose Mary in time!
I threw my specs to a certain young woman
And told her she could be a true lover of mine.
2 Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Arose Mary in time!
Without seam or needle's work
Before she can be a true lover of mine.
3 Tell her to wash it in a well
Arose Mary in time!
Where water never ran nor rain never fell
Before she can be a true lover of mine.
4 Tell her to hang it on a thorn,
Arose Mary in time!
Where leaves never grew since Adam was born
Before she can be a true lover of mine.
5. As I went through Wichander's town,
Arose Mary in time!
I threw my specs to a certain young man
And told him he could be a true lover of mine.
6. Tell him to clean up one acre of ground,
Arose Mary in time!
Between salt sea and Dace town
Before he can be a true lover of mine.
7. Tell him to plow it with a thorn,
Arose Mary in time!
Plant it all over with one grain of corn
Before he can be a true lover of mine.
8 Tell him to reap it with a pea-fowl's feather,
Arose Mary in time!
Wrap it all up with one stirrup of leather
Before he can be a true lover of mine.
9 Tell him to thrash it against the wall,
Arose Mary in time!
For his life, never let a grain fall,
Before he can be a true lover of mine.
10. Tell him to take it to the mill.
Arose Mary in time!
Every grain a barrel shall fill
Before he can be a true lover of mine.
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D. Mrs. James York of Olin, Iredell county. Recorded at Boone, September 14, 1941, by Dr. W. A. Abrams. For additional titles to those given in BTBNA 30, of. BB 2-3: 'Whittingham Fair'; also AFM No. 9: 'Parsley and Sage.' The latter is also the refrain of the former.
Scale: Hexatonic (4), plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aa1 (4,4). Circular Tune (V).