The Mermaid- Pace (KY) 1917 Sharp B
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol 2 by Cecil J. Sharp and Maud Karpeles; 1932 edition. Fortunately Lomax recorded this important version in 1937, compare his text version below.
Sharp used the generic title, The Mermaid for all four versions, no local titles supplied. They were collected in 1917 or 1918 so they could not have been published in his first 1917 book. This version is missing the chorus and is unique (Child A) so it's probably not based on a print version (as many of the Virginia versions- see Davis A-L). This version is rare because it has a stanza from Child A, not usually found in the US or Canada. Child A stanza three:
The first came up the mate of our ship,
With lead and line in hand,
To sound and see how deep we was
From any rock or sand.
Compare to stanza 4 below. Only Niles has a similar stanzas - in both his versions!
Below are Sharp's notes.
R. Matteson 2014]
No. 42. The Mermaid.
Texts without tunes: Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 289. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 84. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 16. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 172 (see also further references). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxvi. 175.
Texts with tunes: Journal of the Folk-Song Society, iii. 47. Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Times, ii. 742. Tozer's Fifty Sailors' Songs, p. 92. British Ballads from Maine, p. 363. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 521 and 602. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 136. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 46.
B. "The Mermaid." Sung by Mrs. ELIZA PACE at Hyden, Leslie Co,, Ky., Oct. 3, 1917 Pentatonic. Mode 2.
[music upcoming]
1. As I walked out one evening fair
Out of sight of land,
There I saw a mermaid a-sitting on a rock
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
2 A-combing down her yellow hair,
And her skin was like a lily so fair;
Her cheeks were like two roses and her eyes were like a star,
And her voice were like a nightingale clear.
3 This little mermaid sprung into the deep.
The wind it began for to blow.
The hail and the rain were so dark in the air.
We'll never see land no more.
4 At last came down the captain of the ship
With a plumb and a line in his hand.
He plumbed the sea to see how far it was
To the rock or else to the sand.
5 He plumbed him behind and he plumbed him before,
The ship kept turning around.
Our captain cried out: Our ship it does wreck,
For the measles (sic) runs around. [1]
6 Come throw out your lading as fast as you can,
The truth to you I'll tell.
This night we all must part
To heaven or else to hell.
7 Come all you unmarried men that's living on the land,
That's living at home at your ease.
Try the best you can your living for to gain [2]
And never incline to the seas.
Footnotes:
1. Measels could be a ship name- haha- not sure if I'd want to sail on that ship! Fortunately Lomax recorded her and the line is:
When the needle swings straight around.
2. living on the land
------------------------
THE MERMAID
No. 1438. Eliza Pace, Hyden, Ky., 1937. See Child No. 2895 Sh, 1:292.
Aunt Lize Pace, eighty years odd, is the wittiest and gayest lady in Leslie County, Kentucky. She lives with her daughter in an old log cabin on the bank of the Clear Fork and, when Lize is not inching along over her cane to the post office or entertaining some neighbor's child at her front door, she has her face in a book, her old eyes following a story of adventure in the Klondike or on the sea.
"Years ago when that funny old Englishman [1] come over the mountains and wrote down these old love songs I know, I could sing like a mockingÂbird, and wasn't no step I couldn't put my foot to in a dance. I didn't keer for nothing and I was happy as a lark all day. But now I'm a-gittin' deef and erbout lame, and I can't stir around for my livin' like I used to. The government sends me my old-age money, but it's shore hard to support a family on three dollars a month, now, ain't it? That's what makes it so I can't remember that last verse to this here pretty song. Anyhow, I do pretty well for sich an old woman—don't I, now?"
1. As I went out one evening,
Far out of sight of the land,
There I saw a mermaid a-sitting on a rock
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
2. A-combing down her long yellow hair,
Her skin was like a lily so fair,
Her cheeks were like two roses and her eyes were like the stars
And her voice was like the nightingale's air.
3. This little mermaid swum into the deep,
The winds begin fur to blow,
The hail and the rain was so dark in the air,
We'll never see the land any more.
4. At last come down the captain of our ship,
With a plumb and a line in his hand
He plumbed the sea to see how fur it was
To a rock or else to the sand.
5. He plumbed her behind and he plumbed her before
And the ship kept turning around,
The captain cried out, "Our ship will be wrecked
When the needle swings straight around.
6 "Then throw out your loading as fast as you can,
The truth to you I will tell,
This night we all must start
To heaven or else to hell."
* The English collector Cecil J. Sharp.