Bluegrass Messengers

The Jew's Daughter- Perine (MD) 1825 Child H

[Child's title and date. From: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis J. Child; Volume 5: Ballads 114-155 published January/February, 1888.

Child G b is the same informant as this version, Child H, a Miss Perine of Baltimore. Child H, however, is Miss Perine's own version as taken from her mother who knew it in 1825.

R. Matteson 2015]

The Jew's Daughter- Child's version H; Communicated by Miss Perine, of Baltimore, Maryland, as sung by her mother about 1825.

1    It rains, it rains in fair Scotland,
It rains both great and small
. . . .
. . . .

2    He tossed the ball so high, so low,
He tossed the ball so low,
He tossed it over the Jew's garden-wall,
Where no none dared to go.

3    Out came one of the Jew's daughters,
All dressed in apple-green;
Said she, 'My dear little boy, come in,
And pick up your ball again.'

4    'I dare not come, I will not come,
I dare not come at all;
For if I should, I know you would
Cause my blood to fall.'

5    She took him by the lily-white hand,
And led him thro the kitchen;
And there he saw his own dear maid
A roasting of a chicken.

6    She put him in a little chair,
And pinned him with a pin,
And then she called for a wash-basin,
To spill his life blood in.

7    'O put the Bible at my head,
And the Testament at my feet,
And when my mother calls for me,
You may tell her I'm gone to sleep.'