What Blood?- Langley (OZ) 1932 Randolph
[My title. From Ozark Mountain Folks - Page 207 by Vance Randolph, 1932. As taken from from Carrie Langley who "was a hard-faced, shrewd-eyed old woman who listened to my enthusiastic talk of balladry quite unmoved."
There aren't many examples of Randolph re-creating a ballad but this is one of them. Not sure of the reasoning but apparently it was to give his characters (are they real?) connections to ballads and maybe Dusenberry portrays that character in Randolph's mind. This is a "countryfied" version (in dialect) of Dusenberry's version of "Edward" that Randolph collected just a year earlier.
R. Matteson 2014]
[What Blood?] - attributed to Carrie Langley (Dusenberry 1931)
Whut blood? Whut blood on th' p'int o' your knife?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
Hit's th' blood o' my ol' gray horse,
That plowed for me, me, me,
That plowed th' corn for me.
Whut blood? Whut blood on th' p'int o' your knife?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
Hit's th' blood o' my ol' Guinea sow
That et th' corn for me, me, me
That et th' corn for me.
Whut blood? Whut blood on th' p'int o' your knife?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
Hit's th' blood o' my oldest brother
That fought th' battle with me, me, me,
That fought th' battle with me!
Whut did you an' him fight about?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
We fit about th' holly bush
That grows by th' mary tree, tree, tree,
That grows by th' mary tree.
Whut will you do when your Pap comes home?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
I'll put my foot in a bumken boat
An' sail across th' sea, sea, sea,
An' sail across th' sea.
Whut will you do with your purty leetle wife?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
I'll put her in th' bumken boat
To sail along with me, me, me,
To sail along with me.
Whut will you do with your purty leetle babe ?
Dear son, come tell t' me.
I'll leave it hyar along with you
T' dandle on your knee, knee, knee,
T' dandle on your knee !