6. The Three Ravens (Folk-Songs of the South- 1925; Footnotes moved to the end of each version.)
Two variants have been found in West Virginia under the title, The Three Crows (cf. Cox XLV, 160). Each has four strains with a refrain. The close similarity of the stanzas and the refrains indicate they have a common source. Stanzas 1 and 2 closely resemble 1 and 2 of Child; from this point on there is a wide variance. In the "Twa Corbies " of Child it is the knight that is
slain and one corbie is to sit on his " hause-bane " and the other is to pick out his eyes. In the West Virginia variants it is the horse that is slain, whose eyes the crows are going to pluck out. These variations may be due to adaptation to environment. The references to the hawk, the hound, and the doe would naturally be the first to drop out.
"The Three Crows" is a more or less comic variety of "The Three Ravens" (Child, No. 26) . It was once popular on the stage and has become a college song: see Christy's New Songster and Black Joker (cop. 1863), p. 58; Singer's Journal,
1, 239; Waite, Carmina Collegensia (Boston, cop. 1868), p. 26; The McGill University Song Book (Montreal [1921]), p. 94; The Scottish Students' Song Book, p. 268; Songs that Never Grow Old (cop. 1909), p. 74. A further variation, "The Four Vultures. A Burlesque Quartette," may be found in Frank Brower's Black Diamond Songster (cop. 1863), p. 30, and Frank Converse's u Old Cremona" Songster (cop. 1863), p. 56 (included in The Encyclopaedia of Popular Songs, N. Y., cop. 1864).
For American texts from oral sources see Tatlock, Journal, xxxi, 273 (Ohio); Focus, v, 281 (Virginia) ; Campbell and Sharp, No. 10 (Virginia) ; Sharp, Folk-Songs of English Origin, 2d Series, p. 22 (Virginia) ; Belden's Missouri collection. Cf. Barry, No. 27; Jones, p. 4 (Michigan); F. C. Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Reed Smith, Journal,xx.vn, 63, and xxvin, 201 (South Carolina and Tennessee); Bulletin, Nos. 4, 5, 7-10. The Scottish text printed by Beatty (Journal, xx, 154) is an interesting adaptation of the tragic English ballad to the pious uses of children.
A. "The Three Crows." Contributed by the General Editor, Morgantown, Monongalia County, 1915; learned from his father in Illinois.
1 There were three crows sat on a tree,
And they were black as black could be.
Philly McGee McGaw!
2 One of them said unto his mate,
"What shall we do for meat to ate?"
Philly McGee McGaw!
3 " There lies a steed on yonder plain
That by his master has been slain."
Philly McGee McGaw!
4 "We'll perch ourselves on his backbone
And pluck his eyes out one by one."
PhillyMcGeeMcGaw!
B. "The Three Crows." Contributed by Messrs. Guy Dowdy and Floyd M. Sayre, students in West Virginia University; learned from fellow students at Marshall College, Huntington, Cabell County.
i There were three crows sat on a limb,
O Billy McGee McGar!
There were three crows sat on a limb,
Billy McGee McGar!
There were three crows sat on a limb,
And they were black as crows could be,
And they all napped their wings and cried,
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
And they all napped their wings and cried,
"O Billy McGee McGar!"
2 Said one old crow unto his mate,
"What shall we do for grub to ate?"
3 "There lies a horse on yonder plain,
'T was by some cruel butcher slain.
4 "We'll perch ourselves on his backbone,
And pick his eyes out one by one."