The Old Man Who Lived in the West- Long (MS) 1926 Hudson
From: Ballads and Songs from Mississippi
by Arthur Palmer Hudson
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (Apr. - Jun., 1926), pp. 93-194
9. THE WIFE WRAPPED IN WETHER'S SKIN.
(Child, No. 277.)
"The Old Man Who Lived in the West." Communicated by Mr. G. E. Bynum, a student in the University of Mississippi. He obtained it from Miss Ida Long, of Saltillo, Lee County, Mississippi, who copied it down while her aged mother (Mrs. Theodosia Bonnett Long) sang it. For other texts from the South, see Cox, No. 29; Campbell and Sharp, No. 33.
I. There's an old man who lived in the West,
Dandoo, dandoo
There's an old man who lived in the West,
Clim a clation clingo
There was an old man who lived in the West,
He had a wife who was none of the best,
Lick the ladle, eelie badum,
Mealy and the clingo.
2. This old man came in from the plow
And asked his wife for his breakfast now.
3. "There's a crust of bread lies on the shelf.
If you want any more you'll cook it yourself."
4. This old man walked to his sheep pen,
And off he jerked a wether's skin.
5. He wrapped it all around his wife's back,
And with a switch he made it crack.
6. "I'll tell my father and all my kin
That you whipped me in a wether's skin!"
7. "You may tell your father and all your kin,
I'll do what I please with my own wether's skin."