Farmer's Wife & the Devil- Gainer (WV) 1800s Gainer
[From: Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills- Patrick Gainer, 1970. Patrick Ward Gainer (1904-1981) was a member of the English faculty at WVU from the mid 1940s to 1972. He collected folk songs while he was a student at WVU in the mid-1920s. No date was given. Assuming his granny Gainer knew this ballad when she was young, this obviously goes back at least 30 years before he was born to c.1870s.
This version begins with the same opening lines found in Child 277 "Wife Wrapt."]
THE FARMER'S WIFE AND THE DEVIL
(CHILD 278, "THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE")
This was Granny's "favorite" funny ballad. When the ballad was sung, the nonsense refrain became a very practical singing device, for while the refrain was being sung, the listeners could laugh and still not lose any of the story in the lines that followed. Granny's name was Phoebe Gainer; she lived in Gilmer County.
1. There was an old man lived under the hill,
If he ain't moved away he's living there still.
Sing fie diddle-i, diddle-i,
Fie diddle-i, diddle-i day.
2 Old Satan came to the man at the plow,
Said, "One of your family I'm goin' to have now."
Sing fie-diddle-i, diddle-i,
Fie-diddle-i, diddle-i day.
(The refrain is repeated in each stanza)
3 "O, it's not your son that I do crave,
But it's your old wife I'm goin' to have."
4 "O Satan, take her with all my heart,
I hope, by golly, you'll never part."
5 Old Satan took her upon his back,
He carried her away like an old miller's sack.
6 When he got her to the forks of the road,
Says he, "Old woman, you're an awful load."
When he got her to the gates of hell,
Says, "Stir up the fire, we'll scorch her well."
Ten little devils came rattling their chains,
She upped with her stick and knocked out their brains.
And the little devils began to squall,
"Take her home, pappy, she'll kill us all."
Old Satan took her back to the old man,
Says, "Keep her at home now if you can."
When she got home the old man was in bed,
She upped with her stick and knocked him in the head.
Said he, "Old woman, did you fare well?"
Said she, "Old man, I flattened all hell."
Now you can see just what these women can do,
They can whip men and devils, too.
Now there's one advantage women have over men,
They can go to hell and come back again."