The Riddle Song- (NC) c.1921 Sutton/ Brown A
[My date, based on Sutton's collecting history. From the Brown Collection, version A. Note that the Brown Collection groups these riddle songs with Captain Wedderburn's Courtship (Child 46). The editor's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
12. Captain Wedderburn's Courtship (Child 46)
Of this riddling ballad of courtship nothing is left in our collection but the riddles, and not all of them; the story of the courtship has faded away. The "perri-merri-dictum doniine" refrain that usually goes with this set of riddles but does not belong to 'Captain Wedderburn's Courtship' does not appear in these North Carolina texts.
A. 'The Riddle Song.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton as sung by "a young girl who worked in a mica mill and had lived on the long, picturesque ridge above the Toe River Valley all her life. She didn't recall whom she heard sing it first."
1. I gave my love a cherry that had no stone,
I gave my love a chicken that had no bone,
1 gave my love a ring that had no end.
Oh, I gave my love a baby with no crying.
2 Now where is there a cherry that has no stone?
And where is there a chicken that has no bone?
And where is there a ring that has no end?
Oh, who has seen a baby with no crying?
3 Oh, when a cherry's budding it has no stone.
And when a chicken's pipping it has no bone,
And when a ring's a-rolling it has no end,
Oh, when a baby's sleeping there's no crying.
A. 'The Riddle Song.' Sung by anonymous singer. Mrs. Sutton procured this song giving neither singer, place, nor date.
For melodic relationship of. *SharpK I 223 and 229, No. 31B and H ('Sir Hugh!'), measures 1-2. Some similarity with FSSH 141, No. 31 A. Scale: Hexatonic (4), plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aba1b1 (4,4,4,4). Circular Tune (V).