The Three Crows- Compton (Va.) 1922 Davis G
[From Davis, Traditional Ballads from Virginia, 1929 p. 137-145. Davis's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
10. THE THREE RAVENS
(Child, No. 26)
IN Virginia "The Three Ravens" have become "The Three Crows," som€etimes "The Two Crows." The Virginia variants, though they may differ in many resp€ects, both as to words and tune, are sufficiently alike to prove a similar origin. They lack at once the tenderness of the English "The Three Ravens" and the cynicism of the Scottish "The Twa Corbies." Their verbal resemblance with the Child texts ceases after the first two stanzas, and in spirit they are far removed from the human drama, touching or cynical, of the Child counterparts. Human actors have been entirely eliminated. "The Three Crows " is usually a comic animal song, which lends itself rather easily to improvisation and even parody. Two interesting civil war parodies are given as appendices to the ballad. C is a good example of comic addition to the old ballad. Minor variations in the several texts are exceedingly interesting.
For American texts, see Barry, No. 27; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin 4,5, 7-10; Campbell and Sharp, No. 10 (Virginia; cf. Sharp, Songs,II, No. 5); Cox No. 6, and p. 522 (melody); Heart Songs, p. 485 Hudson, No. 5 (Mississippi); Jones, p. 301; Journal XX, 154 (Beatty, Wisconsin), 273 (Tatlock, Ohio); for additional references see Cox, p. 31, Journal, XXXI, 273.
G. [The Three Crows] No title given. Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mr. Z. T. Compton, of Bentonville, Va. Warren County Mr. Compton "heard his sister sing it years ago." September 23, 1922. (Mr. Stone)
1 There was an old horse in yonders lane
And by ten thousand crows was slain.
2 There were three.crows in yonders tree,
They looked at him and they looked at me.
3 One old crow said unto his mate [1]
"What shall we do to be saved?"
4 They laid themselves on his backbone
And picked his eyes out one by one.
1. Compare the Scottish text printed by Beatty (Journal, XX, 154), which Cox describes as "an interesting adaptation of the tragic English ballad to the pious uses of children."