The Devil’s Questions- Blanche Kelley (WV) Collected by Patrick W. Gainer. No date given, c. 1924
[According to The English Riddle Ballads by Susan Edmunds, this version was "collected" by Gainer c. 1924. This would be when he was a student collector with Woofter at the University of West Virginia. You can hear Gainer sing this version on-line. It's also published in Gainer's Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills, 1975. Following is some information from WV Collections On-line:
Patrick Ward Gainer (1904-1981) was a student at West Virginia University when it was a hub of folk song collecting activity in the 1920s. His instructors included John Harrington Cox, author of the first significant American folksong study - Folk Songs of the South (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925) and Louis Watson Chappell whose landmark book John Henry: A Folklore Study (Jena: Frommanische Verlag, 1933) established a standard in ballad scholarship [WVC Digital Collections]. Kentucky collector Josiah Combs was also at West Virginia University, preparing doctorial dissertation- which was published in Paris in 1925.
Ganier and fellow student Corey Woofer began collecting ballads, many of which appeared in Josiah Combs 1925 dissertation and later book, "Folk-Songs of the Southern United States." Parts of Gainers' folksong collection were published in Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills (Seneca Books, 1975) and Singa Hipsy Doodle (1971).
The following by Dave Tabler appears in Appalachian History (online):
Native West Virginian Dr. Patrick W. Gainer dedicated the balance of his life to a personal crusade to revitalize folk traditions, and to elevate the image and self-esteem of the Appalachian people at a time when derogatory stereotypes flourished.
His Appalachian folklore course at West Virginia University, where he taught in the English Department from the end of WWII till his retirement in 1972, “was perhaps the most popular class ever offered on campus,” according to a biography on the West Virginia History & Regional Collection website. He offered Extension courses and lectured statewide, and established the still flourishing West Virginia Folk Festival at Glenville in 1950.
The lyrics below, for ‘The Devil’s Questions,’ are from ‘Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills’ (Seneca Books, 1975). Dr. Gainer tracked down West Virginia versions of British folksongs cataloged by Francis James Child in ‘The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,’ published between 1882 and 1898.
“This ballad has not been reported previously from West Virginia tradition,” says Dr. Gainer in his introduction to this song. “It was sung by Blanche Kelley, Gilmer County. The devil asks the maid difficult questions, which she must answer satisfactorily or be carried off to hell. When she answers the questions wisely, the devil disappears. The word ‘peart’ in the refrain is a dialect word meaning cheerful and becoming.”
Questions have arisen about fellow student collector Corey Woofer and at least two articles (one by Wilgus who intimately knew the Combs collection) have been written raising suspicions about Woofer's collected versions. I must admit I have doubts about some of Gainer's versions too, especially the rare ones (see The Rantin- Laddie). In this case he gives no information about his rare find except the name of the informant and the county- there's no announcement from the University where he taught Appalachian Folklore and English about his rare find; it's not sent to the newspapers or the JOAFL- nothing. That way there's no follow-up with the informant, no interviews. He is the first and only collector in West Virgina to find this version. The number of false attributions and poor scholarship have led me to question every collected folksong. Caveat emptor!
I am including this as I include Niles and Woofer's versions.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
—–----------------------------------------
[Listen: The Devil's Questions- Patrick W. Gainer]
The Devil’s Questions Collected by Patrick W. Gainer; Sung by Blanche Kelley, Gilmer County; No Date given.
(Child Ballad 1, “Riddles Wisely Expounded”)
If you can’t answer these questions to me,
O maid so peart and bonnie,
Then you’ll be mine and go with me,
and you so peart and bonnie.
O what is higher than the tree?
O maid so peart and bonnie,
And what is deeper than the sea?
And you so peart and bonnie.
O what is louder than the horn?
O maid so peart and bonnie,
And what is earlier than the morn?
And you so peart and bonnie.
O heaven is higher than the tree,
As I am peart and bonnie,
And hell is deeper than the sea,
And I am peart and bonnie.
O thunder is louder than the horn,
As I am peart and bonnie,
And sin is earlier than the morn,
And I am peart and bonnie.
—Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills (Seneca Books, 1975)
In addition ‘Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills’ Patrick W. Gainer published ‘Witches, Ghosts, and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachian Mountains (Seneca Books, 1975)’ and recorded two albums of ‘Folk Songs of the Allegheny Mountains’ (both on Folk Heritage Recordings, 1963).