A Pair Of Counting Songs

Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. III 1908-1909. (London: Printed for the Society by Barnkicott and Pearce, at the Wessex Press, Taunton, 1909), pp. 125-126.

Appearing originally in the Journal of the Folk=Song Society. No. 10. Being the First Part of Vol. III. (London: Printed for the Society by Barnicott and Pearce at the Athenaeum Press, Taunton, 1907).

35. -- Betty and Her Ducks.

Tune noted by H.E.D. Hammond
Sung by Mr. Adams
at Sturminster Newton, Aug., 1905, pp. 125-126.

[1st Voice.] "Oh! Betty, Betty, have you seen my ducks today?"
[2nd Voice.] "Where, boy, Where?
[1st V.] All in that yonder pond." "There, boy, there."
[1st V.] "Betty and her ducks"
[2nd V.] "Ducks and Betty,
[1st V.] "Oliver and her deer."
[2nd V.] "Deer and Oliver."
[Together.] "Roland and Oliver, The King, and the King his deer, Now, and forever more."

"Oh ! Thomas, Thomas, have you seen my horse to-day?"
"Where, boy, where?"
"All on that yonder plain "
"There, boy, there."
"Thomas and his horse, horse and Thomas, Betty and her ducks, ducks and Betty, Oliver and her deer, etc.

"Oh! Agnes, Agnes, have you seen my geese to-day?"
"Where, boy, where?"
"All on that yonder common."
"There boy, there."
Agnes and her geese, etc.

" Oh, huntsman, huntsman, have you seen my hounds to-day ? "
" Where, boy, where ? "
" All in that yonder cover "
" There, boy, there."
Huntsman and his hounds, etc.

A curious cumulative song, the meaning of which has perhaps been lost. According to the plan it follows, a first verse beginning " Oliver, Oliver, have you seen my deer to-day" seems to be missing. The song has the appearance of having been used as a game, in which perhaps forfeits were exacted for failure to respond promptly with the right words. As it stands it is somewhat illogical -- but perhaps the intentional humour of it lies in the " boy " laying claim to, and pretending to search for, animals which are not lost, and are not Iiis property but that of the person of whom he is enquiring. -- A. G. G.

Hall, the historian, almost a century before Shakespeare, used the expression " to have a Roland to resist an Oliver " ; Roland and Oliver being two of Charlemagne's paladins whose exploits were so similar that it is difficult to keep them distinct. Shakespeare alludes to " England all Olivers and Rolands bred." This song may well be an old one, probably a forfeit drinking-song. -- L. E. B.

 

20. The Tree In The Valley.

Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. III 1908-1909. (London: Printed for the Society by Barnkicott and Pearce, at the Wessex Press, Taunton, 1909), pp. 276-277.

Originally appeared in Journal of the Folk=Song Society. No. 13. Being the Fourth and Final Part of Vol. III. (London: Printed for the Society by Barnicott and Pearce at the Wessex Press, Taunton, June 1909).

Sung by Mr. William Mason (AET 60), Easton, by Winchester

Down in yonders green meadow there grows a fine tree
And on that tree there was a limb,
As fine a limb as ever you see
And the limb on the tree and the tree in the ground,
Down in yonders green meadow there grows a fine tree.

And on that limb there was a twig,
As fine a twig as ever you see
And the twig on the limb and the limb on the tree and the tree in the ground,
Down in yonders green meadow there grows a fine tree.

And on that twig there was a nest, etc.

And in that nest there was an egg, etc.

And on that egg there was a shell, etc.

And in that shell there were some bones, etc.

And on these bones there was some flesh, etc.

(The rest is wanting,)

The melodies given in English County Songs, p. 174, and in the first edition of Songs of the West, p. 220, are distinct from the present melody. -- G. B. G.

I am glad to see a form of this interesting cumulative song -- found in several other European countries -- included in the Journal. In Songs of the West (1st edition -- the song is omitted from the later issue) reference is given to a Breton version, " Ar pare caer." A very curious traditional carol, at least four hundred years old, "Over yonder's a park that is newly begun" -- which there may another time be occasion to discuss in the Journal -- is framed upon a similar enumerative formula, (see Notes and Queries, 10 S. iv, September 2nd, 1905). There is also a French form, with a very polite ending, in La Mere L'Oie -- a book of French nursery-rhymes. This is called " Lc Bois joli " and begins :

An quatre coins de Paris
Devinez ce qu'il y a ;
Il y a un bois,
Un petit bois joli, Alesdames,
Il y a un bois,
Un petit bois joli, il y a.

It ends with a message, found within the yolk of the egg :

Et dedans ce petit jaune
Il y a ecrit
Votre serviteur, Mesdames,
Il y a ecrit
Votre serviteur je suis !

This version does not " pile up" the objects named, as our English forms do, but merely proceeds from one to another with the formula of repetition shown in the first verse. There is also a Danish form, very like ours, with tune, in a collection called Danmarks Melodier :

Langt udi Skoven laa et lille Bjerg --
Aldrig saa jeg saa dejligt et Bjerg --
Bjeiget ligger langt udi Skoven.

[Long out in the wood there lay a little hill,
Never saw I so fair a hill --
The hill lies long out in the wood.]

Then "On the Little hill there stood a tree," etc. The song is marked in this collection as a "Folkesang" with the descriptive title of a " Sang-Remse," equivalent to " Song-Rigmarole" -- a very good name for this class of folk-songs! -- A.G.G.

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