There Was an Old Man- Hart (VA) 1921 Davis A
[My title, replacing the generic one assigned by, I assume, John Stone.]
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.
A. ["There Was an Old Man"] "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin." Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mr. George Hart, of Konnarock, Va. Washington County. November 8, 1921.
1. There was an old man and he lived in the west,
Clang-clish-a-ma-clingo,
He had him a wife that was none of the best,
Lam-berrum-king-derrum-mingo.
2. This old man went out to plow,
Clang-clish-a-ma-clingo,
With one eye open, t'other one shut,
Lam-berrum-king-derrum-mingo.
3. This old man came in from the plow,
Clang- clish-a-ma-clingo,
He says to his wife: "Is dinner ready now?"
Lam-berrum-king-derrum-mingo.
4. "There is a piece of bread all on the shelf;
If you want any better, you can get it yourself."
5. This old man went out to his sheep fold
And he killed him a wether both fat and old.
6. He hung it up upon a pin
And at two jerks he jerked off the skin.
7. He tacked the hide to his wife's back
And with two sticks he made it crack.
8. "I'll tell my daddy, and that you'll see,
How you have lambasted me."
9. "You can tell your daddy and all of your kin
How I dressed my wether's skin."