Dindo-Dan- Stone (VA-LA) 1915 Davis B
45. THE WIFE WRAPT IN WETHER'S SKIN
(Child No. 277)
A dozen texts and two melodies of this ballad have been recovered in Virginia, most of them under the usual American title of "Dandoo," the rest under the Child title, except for one called "Dindo-Dan." As the texts are all short and as they show considerable minor variation, especially in the character and position of the burden, all twelve items, varying in length from three to nine stanzasrare given here. All these variants would seem to belong to a single version, one which does not appear among the regular Child versions, though a somewhat similar text is printed in Child's final Additions and Corrections, V, 304. They belong rather to the usual American "Dandoo" version, variants of which have been printed by Belden, Campbell and
Sharp, Cox, Pound, and others (see below). The Virginia texts follow the B rather than the A version of Miss Pound's American Ballads and Songs, No. 6.
The story told often in fragmentary form by the following texts is the usual one of an unruly wife reformed by a beating, responsibility for which the husband escapes by the technicality of wrapping his wife in a wether's skin and beating the skin. Child has pointed out that the story of the ballad is probably traditionally derived from the old tale of "The Wife Lapped in
Morrel's Skin," Morrel being the husband's old horse fayed to assist at the wife-taming.
For American texts, see Belden, No. 12 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 4, 5, 7-10 Campbell and Sharp, No.33 (Virginia, Kentucky; cf. Sharp, Songs, I, No.6); Child V, 304 (Massachusetts from The Journal of American Folk-Lore VII, 253); Cox, No. 29; Hudson, No. 21 (and Journal, XXXXIX, 209; Mississippi); Journal, VII, 253 (Newell, Massachusetts); XIX, 298 (Belden, Missouri); xxx, 328 (Kittredge, Missouri, fragment); Pound, Ballads, No. 6; Shearin and Combs, p. 8 (fragment). For additional references, see Cox, p. 159; Journal, xxx, 328.
B. "Dindo-Dan." Contributed by Mrs. A. D. Stone, of Lexington, Va. First learned in Louisiana. Rockbridge County. October 26, 1915.
1 There was an old man lived in the west,
Dindo-Dan,
Who married the wife he loved the best,
Clara ma clish shango clingo,
There was an old man lived in the west
Who married the wife he loved the best.
With a larro, cle marro, clearreo don clingo.
2 This good old man came home from plow,
Says, "Wife, is my supper ready now?"
3 "I am not your dog, I am not your slave."
This was the answer his wife gave.
4 This good old man to his sheepfold went
And took a skin on two sticks bent.
5 He put the skin on his wife's back,
And with two sticks he did whick whack (clapping the hands).
6 "I will tell my father and brothers three (sobbing)
That with two sticks you did beat me."
7 "You may tell your father and all your kin,
That I did beat my mutton skin."