Ballad- Bast (NC via MD) 1932 Brown C
[The title could be "Jew's Daughter." From: The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Vol. 2, 1952. A Brown editor's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013, 2015]
34. Sir Hugh; or, The Jew's Daughter (Child 155) Brown Collection
It is odd, in view of its theme, which is really the ritual murder of a Christian child by Jews, that this ballad should have persisted as it has in popular favor down to our own times. It has been reported fairly recently as traditional song in three shires of England, in the Bahamas, in Nova Scotia, and in nearly a score of regional collections in the United States. See BSM 69-70, and add to the references there given Lincolnshire (ECS 86), Miss Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs 46-7, Vermont (NGMS 254-6), Tennessee (BTFLS viii 76-8), Florida (SFLQ VIII 154-5), the Ozarks (OFS I 149-56), Ohio (BSO 66-7), Indiana (BSI 128-33), and Wisconsin (JAFL lii 43-4)- Probably the simple pathos of the little child's death rather than any conscious anti-Semitism explains its persistence. Indeed two of our four texts from North Carolina have lost any trace of the Jew's daughter, as modern texts in general have lost sight of the second element of the original story, the miraculous intervention of Our Lady to restore the child to life. The Brown Collection proper has only one version, our A ; the other three have been contributed by Professor Hudson from his own collection.
C. 'Ballad.' This text also was sent to Professor Hudson in 1932 by Miss Craig, with the explanation that it "was given me by Vivian Bast, at Greensboro, N. C. Her father owns a circus, and she has lived in various parts of the country and picked up odd pieces of folklore in many places, but this song came from her grandmother in Maryland." Here the murderous lady is "the old Jew's daughter" as in most American texts. The first stanza seems to be metrically defective.
1 It was raining hard the other day,
And, oh, the rain did pour
When all the boys in our town went out
To toss a ball ball ball.
2 At first they tossed the ball too high
And then, oh then, too low.
And then into the old Jew's yard
Where no one dared to go go go.
Where no one dared to go.
3 And then came out the old Jew's daughter
All dressed in silk and lace.
She said, 'Come in, my pretty boy,
And get your ball again, 'gain, 'gain,
And get your ball again.'
4 'I won't come in, I can't come in,
I won't come in at all.
I won't come in, I can't come in
Without my playmates all, all, all,
Without my playmates all.'
5 And then she showed him an apple,
And then a gay gold ring,
And then a cherry as red as blood
To entice the little boy in, in, in.
To entice the little boy in.
6. She took him by his little white hand
And led him through the hall
And then into the cellar helow
Where none could hear him call, call, call,
Where none could hear him call.
7. She wrapped him up in a napkin
And pinned it with a pin,
And then she asked for a basin
To catch his life-blood in, in, in,
To catch his life-blood in.
8. 'Oh place my Bible at my feet.
My prayer-book at my head,
And if my mother should ask for me
Tell her that I am dead dead dead,
Tell her that I am dead.
9. 'Oh place my prayer-book at my head,
My Bible at my feet.
And when my playmates ask for me
Tell them that I'm asleep sleep sleep,
Tell them that I'm asleep.'