The Cambric Shirt- Contributed by Fred Wilkinson; H. M. Belden 1910 JAFL; Flanders J
[From: Three Old Ballads from Missouri
by H. M. Belden
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 23, No. 90 (Oct. - Dec., 1910), pp. 429-431
A footnote in Flanders: Belden suggests that there may be Malayan or Hawaiian influence in this refrain. "Such influence," he says, "might come about if any of the singers' ancestors or relatives had ever been on a whaling voyage." This is a bit farfetched since there are dozens of versions with "nonsense syllable" refrains.
R. Matteson 2014]
3. THE CAMBRIC SHIRT
This version of Child, No. 2, was contributed by Fred Wilkinson, West Plains, Missouri, from his grandmother's manuscript collection of ballads made in her youth at Brownington, Vermont. See Child, I, 19; V, 284. Additional notes state: Secured by Miss Hamilton in 1910 from Fred Wilkinson who got it from a MS collection made by his grandmother, Eliza Robbins, of Brownington, VT. H. M. Belden, "Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society," 1940 (1973), The Elfin Knight C, p. 3.
1. "Can you make me a cambric shirt
Fluma luma lokey sloomy -
Without seam or fine needle work?
From a teaslum tasalum templum
Fluma luma lokey sloomy.
2. "Can you wash it in a well
Where water never run nor water never fell?
3. "Can you dry it on a thorn
That never was since Adam was born? "
4. "Can you buy me an acre of land
Between the salt water and the sea land?
5. "Can you plow it with a hog's horn,
And seed it all down with one pepper corn?
6. "Can you put it in a horn
That never was seen since Adam was born?"
7. When the fool has done his work,
He may come to me and have his shirt.