196. Swapping Songs

196

Swapping Songs

There are in the Collection more than one song on the theme of
successive exchanges at a loss. First is that commonly called
simply 'Swapping Song.' This is found both in Halliwell (6-8)
and Rimbault (54-6), and has been reported from Connecticut
(Hoosier Folklore Bulletin iv 56) and Tennessee (ETWVMB
78-9). It is marked by a refrain, as in our A text, mentioning
Jack Straw, which is supposed to have come down from the four-
teenth century, when one Jack Straw was the partner of Wat Tyler
in the rebellion in the days of Richard II. Another is 'The Foolish
Boy,' in which the old nursery rhyme 'When I was a little boy I
lived by myself is extended with a series of unprofitable exchanges.
This has been reported from Indiana (Hoosier Folklore Bulletin iv
87-8). The nursery rhyme without the swapping is separately con-
sidered under another caption. Then there is a quite distinct song
in which a girl tells how her father is going to buy her a mocking-
bird, a ring, a looking glass, a billy goat, and so on. And there
is still another, a fragment perhaps, that seems not to belong to any
of these.

 

'Swapping Song.' From W. Amos Abrams of Boone, Watauga county.
Date and provenience not given.

1 My father died, but I don't know how,
He left a horse to hitch to the plow.

Refrain:

To my wing wong waddle,
To my Jack straw straddle,
To my John far faddle.
To my long ways home.

2 I swapped my horse and got a cow,
And in that trade I just learned how.

3 I swapped my cow and got me a calf,
And in that trade I just lost half.

4 I swapped my calf and got me a goat,
Rode to election and sold my vote.

5 I swapped my goat and got me a pig ;

The piggy was so little and he never growed big.

6 I swapped my pig and got me a hen
To lay me an egg every now and then.

 

472 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

7 I swapped my hen and got me a cat;
The pretty Httle thing by the chimney sat.

8 I swapped my cat and got me a mouse ;

His tail caught a-fire and he burned down the house.

9 I swapped my mouse and got me a mole ;
The dad-burned thing went straight to his hole.

 

'I Swapped My Horse and Got Me a Mare.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton
from the singing of a man named Huskins in Mitchell county. "The
mountain children, familiar with this song, find the basic truth in it and
enjoy it a great deal. Mr. Huskins said his 'younguns druther hear hit
than ary nother song he knowed.' " Note that the refrain is really that
of A though it has lost the Jack Straw memory.

1 I swapped my horse and got me a mare,
And then I rode to the county fair.

Refrain:

And a whang dang a foddle all day, all day,
And a whang dang a foddle all day.

2 I swapped my mare and got me a cow,
And in that trade I learned just how.

3 I swapped my cow and got me a calf.
And in that trade I lost just half.

4 I swapped my calf and got me a sheep,
And then I cried myself to sleep.

5 I swapped my sheep and got me a hen ;

She ain't laid an egg since Lord knows when.

6 I swapped my hen and got me a cat ;
She put her kitten in Dad's old hat.

7 I swapped my cat and got me a mouse ;

His tail cotch a-fire and burnt down the house.

 

I swapped my mouse and got me a mole ;
The dog-gone thing run right to his hole.

 

No title. From Miss Gertrude Allen (afterwards Mrs. Vaught), Tay-
lorsville, Alexander county. This seems to belong neither to the tradition
of The Swapping Song' as given above nor to The Foolish Boy.'
Negroes know it in Alabama (ANFS 195).

 

OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH 473

Paid five dollars for an old gray horse.
Horse wouldn't pull and I sold it for a bull.
Bull wouldn't holler and I sold it for a dollar.
Dollar wouldn't pass, so I throwed it in the grass.
Yonder comes a yaller gal walking mighty fast.

'The Foolish Boy' is simply the 'Swapping Song' appended to the
nursery rhyme about the little boy who tried to bring his wife home
in a wheelbarrow, for which see no. 131 in Vol. III. The combina-
tion is fairly familiar in the South: West Virginia (FSmWV 48-
50), Kentucky (SharpK 11 307-9, TKMS 10-3, JAFL xxvi 143-4),
with some form of the refrain already exemplified in A, and without
precise location in the southern Appalachians (AMS 48-9), with a
quite different refrain, the same as that used in the nursery song
'Poor Little Lamb Cries "Mammy." ' Reported also from Ohio
(BSO 215-16) with the 'Swapping Song' refrain. It occurs but
once in the North Carolina collection, and without refrain.

 

'When I Was a Little Boy ' Reported, probably by W. Amos Abrams,
as "given to me on September 29, 1939, by Louise Hutchins, who
learned it from her classmates in school at White Plains." White
Plains is in Surry county.

1 When I was a little boy I lived by myself.

All the bread and meat I got I laid it on the shelf.

2 The rats and the mice led me such a life

I had to go to London to buy me a wife.

3 The roads were muddy and the streets were narrow ;
I had to bring her home in an old wheelbarrow.

4 The wheelbarrow broke and wife caught a fall.
Down went the wheelbarrow, wife and all.

5 I sold my wife and bought me a cow;
In that trade I learned how.

6 I sold my cow and bought me a calf;
In that trade I lost half.

7 I sold my cow and bought me a cat ;
In that trade I got me a hat.

8 I sold my cat and bought me a mouse ;
The darned little devil set fire to my house.

'Papa's Going to Buy Me a Mockingbird' has no connection with
the 'Swapping Song' or 'The Foolish Boy' except that it recounts
a similar series of nonsensical exchanges. From the temper of it
one suspects an origin on the vaudeville stage; but Dr. White notes
on Knox's copy that he knew it as a nursery song in his childhood.
It has been reported also from Virginia (SharpK 11 342) and
Arkansas (OFS iii 51).

 

474

 

NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

 

'Sister, Sister, Have You Heard?' Obtained from Carl G. Knox, stu-
dent at Trinity College 1922-24. Goes to the tune of 'Mr. Bullfrog.'

1 Sister, sister, have you heard?
Papa's goin' a buy me a mocking bird.

2 If that mocking bird won't sing,
Papa's goin' a buy me a diamond ring.

3 If that diamond ring turns brass,
Papa's goin' a buy me a looking-glass.

4 If that looking-glass gets broke.
Papa's goin' a buy me a billy goat.

5 If that billy goat won't pull,
Papa's goin' a buy me a Jersey bull.

6 If that Jersey bull won't bellow,

Papa's goin' a buy me a brand new fellow.

7 If that brand new fellow won't work,
Papa's goin' a buy me a woolen shirt.

8 If that woolen shirt won't fit,
Papa's goin' a have a fit, fit, fit.

'Mama, Mama, Have You Heard?' From Miss Florence Coleman of
Durham in 1922. The first four couplets as in E except for "mama"
instead of "sister" in the opening line; the last two couplets are:

5 If that billy goat runs away,

Papa's going to buy me a load of hay ;

6 If that load of hay gets wet.

Papa's going to woop my back, I bet.
 

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196
Swapping Songs

 

'Swapping Song.' Sung by Miss Earlina Greene. Recorded at Boone, Watauga
•county, August 9, 1939, Earlina was fourteen years old and in high school at
A.S.T.C. Another title given is 'I Swapped Me a Horse and I Got Me a Mare,'
which occurs in the sixth stanza of version A in SharpK 11 307, No. 217, the
title of which is 'The Foolish Boy.'


Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aabb (2,2,2,2) = ab
(4.4).

 

'Sister, Sister, Have You Heard?' Sung by Carl G. Knox. Recorded at Trinity
College in Durham, between 1922 and 1924. Same tune as 'Mr. Bullfrog.' Same
text as in OFS iii 47-9, No. SiA.


For melodic relationship cf. **OFS iii 47-9, No. 51A, measure 2 only.
Scale: Irrational, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: ab (2,2).