The Egyptian Davy O- (NC) 1914 T.Smith/Brown C
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Vol. 2, 1952. Their notes follow.
Thomas Smith has proven to be an unreliable collector, mainly through his contributions to Kyle Davis Jr. (More TBVa, 1960) in the 1930s after he and his brother moved to Virginia. In particular his C and D versions of child 200 are questionable.
R. Matteson 2015]
37. The Gypsy Laddie (Child 200)
Still widely known and sung; see BSM 73-4, and add to the citations there given Massachusetts (FSONE 207-9), Tennessee (SFLQ XI 130-1), North Carolina (FSRA 2)7, one stanza only), Florida (SFLQ viii 156), Arkansas (OFS I 152-3, 155-60), Missouri (OFS I 155-9), Ohio (BSO 67-9), Indiana (BSI 134), and Kittredge's bibliographical note JAFL xxx 323. Texts from the Southern states are likely to include, rather incongruously, stanzas from the wooing song 'Where are you Going, my Pretty Maid?' So in Tennessee (FSSH iii), Mississippi (FSM 118-19), and North Carolina (SCSM 218 and versions A B D E G below).
C. 'The Egyptian Davy O.' Another — and much abbreviated — text sent by Thomas Smith of Zionville in 1914 to C. Alphonso Smith and later to the North Carolina collection. The rhymes and in a less degree the refrain are suggestive of the familiar "raggle-taggle gypsies" form of the ballad.
1 There were three Egyptians living in the East,
They were three Egyptians lairio;
They sung the Egyptian songs
Till they charmed the heart of a lady o.
Rol de ma rinktom rinktom
Rol de ma rinktom rario.
2 'Go saddle me my milk-white steed,
Go saddle me my hasty O;
I'll ride all day and I'll ride all night
Till I overtake my honey O.'
3 I rode east and I rode west
Till I came to some distant lairio,
And there I found my pretty little miss
Sitting on the knee of the Egyptian Da[v]y o.
4 'Come go back with me, my pretty little miss,
Come go back with me, my honey o.
I'll take and lock you in a higher room
Where the Egyptians can't get a-nigh you.'