60. The Turkish Factor

60
The Turkish Factor

The history and antecedents of this broadside ballad are fully,
discussed by Bertha McKee Dobie in PTFLS vi 56-8, prefacing
a print of the ballad (54 stanzas) as written down by Mrs. Emeline
Brightman Russell of Comanche, Texas, in her old age, in the first
decade of the present century. The story of the Thankful Dead
Man goes far back in folklore ; the English ballad is at least as old
as the early eighteenth century, and has been frequently printed in
garlands and broadsides. A four-stanza fragment of it has been
found in Vermont (VFSB 81-2) and there is a manuscript of it
in Michigan (BSSM 479) ; with the exception of these and Mrs.
Russell's text it has not been reported from tradition in America
until now. Our North Carolina text is part of the John Bell
Henneman collection and was reported on by him to the Modern
Language Association in 1906, but has not, so far as I can learn,
hitherto been printed. It is much shortened from the Russell form,
and is in places rather incoherent, presumably from failure of mem-
ory. The manuscript is not divided into stanzas, nor punctuated;
but the piece seems to be conceived as stanzaic and I have accord-
ingly attempted so to divide it.

'The Turkish Factor.' From the John Bell Henneman collection, taken
down in 1906 by H. W. Ticknor from the singing of Mrs. Elizabeth
Simpkins of Vanceboro, Craven county. She learned her songs from
her mother, who had them by oral tradition at her home in England.

I A Story, a story I'll hold in your jest

Concerning a young gentleman who lived in the West.
By gaming he came to great poverty

 

He being well educated and one of great wit
The squires of London they all thought him fit ;
They made him the factor and captain also
And to many voyages to Turkey did go.

As he was going through Turkey one day

He saw a dead body's carcass a-lying on the way.

'Oh, why do this lie here?' the factor he cries.

One of the natives made this reply :
'Sir, he was a Christian while he drew breath ;
He's not paid his just dues and lies above yet.'

 

OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH 221

5 'What is his just dues?' the factor repHed.

'Fifty pounds sterling,' the Turks did reply.
'Fifty pounds sterling is a great sum indeed.
To see him lie there it makes my heart bleed.'

6 Down by the factor this money was paid
And under the ground this dead body was laid.

7 As he was going further he chanced for to spy
A beautiful damsel just going to die;

A young waiting maiden strangled must be
For nothing only striking a Turkish ladee.

8 Her eyes like a fountain began for to flow

From ofT her red rosy cheeks from thence to the ground.

Like rivers of water from his eyes did 'still,

Saying, 'What will you take for that fair creature's life?'

9 'A hundred pounds sterling,' the Turks did reply.
'A hundred pounds sterling is a great sum indeed ;
But it is for her freedom, I will freely pay it down.

10 'Now say, my dear madam, will you go with me
To fair London city where my dwelling be?'

'Oh, yes, my dear master ; you have freed me from death.
I'm bound to obey you while God gives me breath.'

1 1 He carried her to London ; he found her so just,
The keys of his riches he did in her trust.

12 It was not very long 'fore this factor must go.

He crossed the wide ocean and then he had to sail.

She flowered him a waistcoat of silver and gold

And told him to let it be seen by the great Magistrae.

13 'What is your reason, dear madam?' says he.

'I'll not tell my reasons ; some reasons you'll find.'

14 On this voyage he did sail

He entered into the old prince's coach . . .

The old prince stopped him, says

'Who flowered your garment with silver and gold?

15 'See, here you wear that I do wear.

I sent my dear daughter over the sea

A friend for to see ; the last I heard from her
She was taken in Turkey as a slave.

16 'Who would bring her, my daughter, to me.
Who that would bring her his bride she shall be.'

 

222 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

17 He returning back then to his bride across the sea,
He returned to his lady and this he did say :

'Get ready ; your parents you soon shall see.'
Aboard of the ship straightway they did go.

18 That night he wakened the lady all out of a sleep,
He had plundered^ the factor all into the deep.
'Your factor is gone, I do not know where.

But your dear parents you soon shall see.'

19 There was an island close by ;
This factor swam to it.

He a-being on the island next day,
He saw an old man in a little canoe.

20 'Now, without a promise she will make unto me ....
Promise me your first-born and I will set you free.'

21 He promised him his first-born. Now the lady was at

home,
And told her parents to give her forty days to mourn
For the loss of her factor ....
Then she would marry the factor after forty days.

22 As she was a-walking by the river a-grieving,
'Oh, yonder's my factor, I now declare!
Where he has gone I do not know where,
But he has returned to me.'

23 The captain, a-seeing him, drowned himself in the deep.

24 This couple was soon married.

They had been married a year or more.
They were blessed with a little babe.

25 This ghost, entering into the room.
'Fulfill those promises you made to me.'

26 *I must give my dear baby to that I don't know where,
Perhaps in pieces my darling babe may tear.'

2^ He took the little baljy. 'Don't you remember one day

Going through Turkey ? I am the dead body's spirit you

had buried on the way.
Here, take your blessed baby ; may the Lord bless you all.'
With three bitter groans banished- out of the hall.
^ One supposes that "plundered" is for "plunged" ; and the "he" must
be the captain of the ship, who has somehow learned of the situation
and has designs on the prince's daughter for himself ; or perhaps a rival
factor — which would help to explain the puzzle of the two factors a few
lines below.

^ Presumably this should be "vanished."