Late One Sunday Evening- Gore (TX) 1941 Owens
[From: Tell Me a Story, Sing Me a Song: A Texas Chronicle - Page 46; by William A. Owens. Also Texas Folk Songs; Owens 1950. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
"Late One Sunday Evening," also called "The Bramble Briar," may or may not illustrate the point. The story is told as "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" in Boccaccio's Decameron and in John Keats' "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil." As Mrs. Dock Eason recorded it in the Big Thicket.
"Late One Sunday Evening"- Sung by Mrs Hardy Gore in the Big Thicket of Texas, 1941.
Late one Sunday evening as two lovers sat talking,
Her brothers said, "This will not do.
Oh, we'll take him off in a game of hunting
And nothing more will be found of him."
And the very next morning they started out walking,
They walked over hills and over valleys,
Until they came to some lonesome valley,
And there they left him a-lying dead.
And the very next day when they returned home,
Their sister asked them where was he.
"Oh, he was lost in a game of hunting,
And nothing more shall be found of him."
And the very next day she started out walking
She walked over hills and over valleys,
Until she came to some lonesome valley,
And there she found him a-lying dead.
She stooped over him and kissed him, crying,
Saying, "Now hungry[1] is a-calling me home;
For I've been roving three days and three nights
And now hungry is a-calling me home."
And the very next day when she returned home
Her brothers asked her where was she
"Oh, hold your tongues you triffling villains,
For both of you shall hand for the sake of one."
And the very next day she pushed them into the ocean
And they both had a watery grave;
And the wind did blow and the leaves did shadow
And they both had a watery grave.
1, hunger