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KANSAS CITY MO PUBLIC LIBRARY

Folk- Songs from the Southern Highlands

from the Southern Highlands

Collected and Kdited

by
M ELLIN GER EDWARD HENRY

J. AUGUSTIN PUBLISHER
NEW YORK CITY

VLL KIC.I1 I ^

llilb FIRST I L>I IION Ib COMI'ObtD IN GARAMOND TYPT ( UT
KY 'J Hh MONOIYPf' CORPORMION, PRINTED TN (TtRMAN> BY

j i MJGL T SJIN, CiLtu KSTADT- HAMBURG -NFVI' YORK AND

BOUND H\ (,I OROL MrKlHBLNA SON, BKOOKMN, N ^ IN

M\IU }\ iq^ I OR J J /\UC,UVTIN PUBLISHLK NL.W ^ORK CITY

MY WIFL

WIT1J OUT WHOM THIS BOOK WOULD NOT
HA\ r E BhP.N POSSIBLE

CONTENTS

Page

List of Illustrations .. . xi

List of References-Abbreviations xii

Introduction i

Ballads and Songs ... 29

1. The Elfin Knight (Child, No. 2) . . 31

2. Lady Isabel and the Klf-Knight (Child, No. 4) .. . 32

3. Karl Brand (Child, No. 7) . . 36

4. The Twa Sisters (Child, No 10) . 38

5. Lord Randal (Child, No. 12) .. . . 45

6. The Cruel Mother (Child, No. 20) 47

7. The Three Ravens (Child, No. 26) . 48

8. The Broomficld Hill (Child, No. 43) -53

9. Young Bcichan (Child, No 53) 55

10. The Cherry-Tree Carol (Child, No. 54) 59

11. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet (Child, No 73) .60

12. The Lass of Roch Royal (Child, No. 76).. 66

1 3 . The Wife of Usher's Well (Child, No. 79) . . 70
14 Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard (Child, No 81) 73
15. Bonny Barbara Allan (Child, No. 84) 80
16 Lady Alice (Child, No. 85) . ... 89

17. Lamkin (Child, No 93) 9 1

18. The Maid Freed from the Gallows (Child, No. 95) . 93

19. Johnny Scot (Child, No. 99) . 100

20. Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter (Child, No 1 5 5) 102

21. King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France (Child, No. 164) .. 106

22. The Gypsy Laddie (Child, No. 200) no

23. James Harris (The Daemon Lover) (Child, No 243) . 113

24 Our Goodman (Child, No. 274) 119

25 The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin (Child, No. 277) .. 125

26. The Farmer's Curst Wife (Child, No. 278) 125

27. The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity) (Child, No. 286) 127

28. The Mermaid (Child, No. 289) . *33

29. The Brown Girl (Child, No. 295) J 34

30. The Yorkshire Bite . . *35
31 1 Gave Aly Love a Cherry T 4

32. The Judge and the Jury . .... 142

33. Young Hunting . . M^

34. The Perjured Maid . . ... 147

35. Little Dicky Whigburn .. - .... 153

36. The Holy Twig .. . J 54

37. Twelve Apostles (The Ten Commandments) . .. . . . .156

38. Home, Dearie, Home . . . J 5^

vii

Contents

Page

39. The Bramble Briar 161

40. Johnny Doyle . .. .. 162

41. Young Edmund in the Lowlands Low 164

42. William and Polly 167

43. Young Johnny .. . 168

44. William and Mary .. 172

45. Jack and Joe . ... .. 17$

46. Derby Ram . . 175

47 Johnny Troy 178

48. The Brisk Young Farmer . .. 180

49. The Bugaboo 182

50 The Sheffield Apprentice 183

51. The Soldier's Wooing.. .. . 185

52. Sweet William (Sailor Boy) . . 188

53. The Drowsy Sleeper ... . ...... 190

54. The Three Sons . . 191

55. The Boatsman and the Chest . . . . 191

56. The Dishonest Miller . . . ... . 192

57. The Butcher Boy .... ... . . 195

58. One Morning in May . . .... 200

59. Pretty Fair Miss . . ...... 201

60. Fair Damsel .. . . . . .. 204

61. Farewell, Parting Lover . 205

62. Jackaro 208

63. Pearl Bryan . . . 209

64. The Wexford Girl (The Cruel Miller) . 214

65. On the Banks of the Ohio . . ... 220

66. Poor Omic .. . 221

67. Come, Pretty Polly . 229

68. Early in the Spring . . 233

69 Broken Vows ... 235

70 Short Life of Trouble . .. . '236

71 Little Sweetheart 237

72 Flirting . . 238

73 A Package of Old Letters .... . ... 243

74 Forsaken . . ,250
75. Forsaken Lover ... . .251
76 The Dear Companion . 252

77. 1 Dreamed Last Night of My True Ix>ve 253

78. Song Ballcn ("1 rode to church last Sunday") . 255
79 Young Ladies (Little Sparrow) . 2^7
80. My Pretty Little Pink ... . 262

81 The True Lover's Farewell . .265

82 Black Is the Color 266
8 3 Lonesome Dove . . . 267

84 My Dearest Dear . 269

85 The I -over's Lament . . 270
86. No Change in Mr .... . . 272

87 Old Smoky . 273

88. Sweet Willie (Sweet Lillie) .... . .276

89 Fm Going to Georgia . . . .278

via

Contents

Page

90. The Wagoner's Lad . . 279

91. I Love Little Willie 281

92. Pretty Saro 283

93. Little Nell of Narragansett Bay 284

94. Pretty Mohea.. .. ... 284

95. Paper of Pins 291

96. The Black Mustache 295

97. The Lonesome Scenes of Winter. ... . 298

98. The Old Man's Courtship .. . . 301

99. The Crafty Lover ... .... 303

100. Will the Weaver ... 304

1 01. The Weaver Had a Wife . . .306

102. The Ballad of the Waterfall . . -.307

103. Old Maid's Song .. 309

104. I'll Not Marry at All . 310

105. Come, All Young Men . . 311

1 06. An Old Man at His Grave . 312

107. I Have Always Heard of These Old Men . 312

108. Song Ballet ("I -was sixteen years of age") 314

109. Ellen Smith . . . . .... 315

no. Claud Allen . . . .316

in. Sidney Allen ... .. 319

112. Jesse James . . 320

113. Wild Bill Jones .. . 323

114. Tom Dooley ..... . .... 325

115. The Prisoner's Song . 327

11 6. The Rich Rambler . . 327

117. Logan County Court House . 329

1 1 8. The Peddler and His Wife . 330

119 Charles Guiteau or James A. Garficld . . 331

120. A Kentucky Feud Song ... 333

121 Leo Frank and Mary Fagan . 33^

122 Frankie and Albert .. . . 338

123 The Texas Rangers . . 349
124. When the Work's All Done This Fall 35 1
TZS. The Rambling Cowboy . 354

126. Death of a Maiden Fair 358

127. The Lone Prairie . . . 360

128. The Dying Cowboy 360
129 The Arkansas Traveler . . 361

130. The Battle of Fredencksburg . 363

131 Brother Green . . . 364

1 32. The Drummer Boy of Shiloh . . 366

133. The Soldier Boy 367

134. The Dying Soldier 368

1 3 5 . The Ship That Never Returned . 369

136. The Blind Child's Prayer . 371

137. Mary of the Wild Moor . . ... 372

138. Orphan Girl . ... 37$

139. Orphan's Song . 377

140. The Drunkard's Hell . . .. 378

Contents

Page

141. The Drunkard's Lone Child 382

142. Billy Boy . . .... 383

143. The Ground Hog . .. . . . 388

144. The Frog and the Mouse . ... 392

145. Sourwood Mountain . . . ... 399

146 First She Gave Me Was a Old Shot Gun ... ... . 402

147. Sandy . . . . 403

148. There Was a Little Tree . . 403

149. King William Was King George's Son ... 406

150 Who Killed Poor Robin? .. . 406

r 5 1 . Old Grampus ...... .. 408

152 Irish Barber .. . 409

153. The Old Gray Mare . . 410

154 Calomel .. . . ... 412

155 My Old Banjo 413

156. Kitty Wells . . . 414

157. Were You There? . . . 415

158. The Little Family . 417

159. Old Ship of Zion .. . 419
1 60 All My Sins Are Taken Away 420

1 61. My Lord, What a Morning' 422

162. She'll Be Coming around the Mountain 422

163. When You Hear That Whistle Blow 424
164 I Heard the Whistle Blowing . 425

165. Fragment of a Negro Song 426

166. The Great Titanic 426

167. Shortening Bread . 428

168. I Went Up on the Mountain Top 429

169. Lliza Jane 430

170 Cindy . 434

171 Massa Had a Little Yallci Gal 436
172. Lulu . . . 436
J 73 Big-hye Rabbit . .437

174. Sal's Got a Meat-Skin 437

175. When 1 Die . 438

176. Fragments of Negro Songs 438

177. Cocaine.. . . 440

178. Jake Walk Blues 440

179. John Henry 441

180. Swannanoa Tunnel 448

Index to Titles . . 451

Indev to First Lines 455

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mrs. Samuel Harmon When She Came to Sing for Us at Our Camp in the Great Smokies

Mr. Samuel Harmon Who Says He "can sing all night and nary repeat"

John Oliver, Who Contributed a Number of Songs, with Ills Old "Bean" Rifle, of the

Type Used by Boone

"Big Tom" Wilson's Old Home on the Cane River at the Foot of Mount Mitchell
Vilas, Watauga County, N. C., Near the Old Home of the Harmons
Three Generations of a Family of Singers a Harmon Group
In a Ballad Region of North Carolina Sceenes along the Ltnvillc River
Scene in a Community of Ballad Singers Indian Gap, Tennessee, Showing the

"Chimneys" in the Background..
Home of Ballad Singers, Cade's Cove, Tennessee
High Falls on Tuckasegee River in North Carolina
A Swinging Foot-bridge across the Cane River in North Catolma
A Mountaineer's Home on Roaring Fork, Tennessee
"Aunt Lcanna" Spangler, of a Family of Ballad Singets, at Hei Home in Cade's

Cove, Tennessee
Robert Kirby Who Sings "John Henry" Songs

LIST OF REFERENCES-ABREVIATIONS

Barry. Phillips Barry, Ancient British Ballads, etc. (A privately printed list).

Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth: Phillips Barry, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, and Mary Wmslow
Smyth, British Ballads from Maine. New Haven, 1929.

Bcldcn: H. M. Belden,^! Partial List of Song-Ballads and Other Popular Poetry Known
in Missouri. Second Edition (1910).

Brown: F. C. Brown, Ballad-Literature in North Carolina. Reprinted from Proceedings
and Addresses of the Fifteenth Annual Session of the Literary and Historical Asso-
ciation of North Carolina, December i 2, 1914.

Bulletin: Bulletin of the Folk- Song Society of the Northeast.

Campbell and Sharp: Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk- Songs
from the Southern Appalachians. New York, 1917.

Child. Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Boston, 1883 ff.

Colcord: Joanna C. Colcord, Roll and Go, Songs of American Sailormen. Indianapolis,
1924.

Combs: Josiah H. Combs, Folk- Songs du Alidt des Etats-Ums. Pans, 1925.

Cox: John Harrington Cox, Folk-Song* of the South. Cambridge, 1925.

Da\is: Arthur Kyle Davis, Traditional Ballads of} irginia. Cambridge, 1929

Finger: Charles J. Finger, Frontier Ballads. New York, 1927.

Flanders and Brown Helen Hartness Flanders and George Brown, \~ermant Folk-
Songs and Ballad*. Brattlcboro (1951).

Fuson: Harvey H. Fuson, Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands London, The Mitre Press,
1931.

Gray. Roland Palmer Gray, Song* and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks. Cambridge,
1925.

Heart Songs. Heart Songs, Dear to the American People and by Them Contributed in the
Search for Treasured Songs Initiated by the National Magazine. Boston, 1909.

Hudson: Arthur Palmer Hudson, Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore. Ann Arboi,
Michigan (1928).

Jones- Bcrtrand L. Jones, F oik-Lore in Alichigan Reprinted from Kalama^oo Normal
Record, May, 1914. Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

journal: The Journal of American Folk-Lore.

Lomax, Cowboy Songs- John A. Lomax, Cowboy \ongs and Other Frontier Ballad*.
New Yoik, 1910.

Lomax, Songs: John A Lomax, \ongt of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp New York,
1919.

Lunsford and Stnngfield. Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Lamar Stnngiield, ^o and
i Folksongs (From the Southern Mountains). Carl Fischer, Inc., New York, n. d.

McGill Josephine McCull, Folk-songs of the Kentucky Mountains. New York, 1917.

Mackenzie, Quest: >X . Roy Mackenzie, The C) nest of the Ballad. Princeton, 1919.

Mackenzie, Ballads- W. Roy Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia.
Cambridge, 1928.

Newell: William Wells Newell, Games and Songs oj American Children. New York, 1903.

Pound, Syllabus-. Louise Pound, Folk-Song of Nebraska and the Central West, A Syl-
labus. Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Publications, Vol IX, No. 3.

xti

Ust of References-abbreviations

Pound, Ballads: Louise Pound, American Ballads and Songs. New York, 1922.

PTFLS: Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society.

Richardson and Spaeth: Ethel Park Richardson and Sigmund Spaeth, American Moun-
tain Songs. (New York, 1927).

Randolph: Vance Randolph, The O^arks: an American Survival of Primitive Society.
New York, 1931.

Sandburg: Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag. New York, 1927.

Sargent and Kittredgc: Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge, English
and Scottish Popular Ballads y Students Cambridge Edition. Cambridge, 1904.

Scarborough: Dorothy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro f 1 oik-Songs. Cambridge,
1925.

Sharp, Songs, I: Cecil J. Sharp, Amencan-hnghsh P oik-Songs Collected in the Southern
Appalachians. First Series. London, Novcllo and Co., n. d.

Sharp, Songs, II. Cecil J. Sharp, Folk - So ngs of English Ongin Collected in the Appalachian
Mountains. Second Series. I/indon, Novello and Co , n d

Shcann: Hubert G. Sheann, British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains. Reprinted
from the Seiranee Review, July, 1911. Sewanee, Tennessee

Shcann and Combs: Hubert G Sheann and Josiah H. Combs, A Syllabus of Kentucky
Folk-Songs, 111 "Transylvania Studies in English, 11". Lexington, Kentucky, 1911.

Shoemaker, 2nd ed.: Henry W. Shoemaker, North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy. Second
Edition Altoona, Pennsylvania, 1923

Shoemaker, ^rd ed. : Henry W Shoemaker, Mountain Mi nstrelsy of Pennsylvania Phila-
delphia, Newman F NIcGirr, 1931

C. A Smith: C. Alphonso Smith, Ballads Surviving in the United States. Reprinted
from the Musical Quarterly ', New York, January, 1916

Reed Smith Reed Smith, The Traditional Ballad and its South Carolina Survivals
Bulletin of the University of South Carolina^ No 162, May 1, 1925. Columbia, South
Carolina

Reed Smith, Ballade Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads. Cambridge, 1928.

Spaeth, Read V/// and Weep' Sigmund Spaeth, Read *ew and Weep' the Songs You
Forgot to Remember New York, 1927.

Spcnth, Weep So?ne Alore Sigmund Spaeth, Weep S owe More, My Lady. New York,
1927

Sturgis and Hughes: Edith B. Sturgis and Robert Hughes, Songs from the Hills of
I rrmont Ne\\ York (1919)

Thomas, lc,m Thomas, D ei'iTs Ditties. Chicago, 1931.

Wvman and Brockway. l^orainc Wyman and Howard Brockway, Lonesome 1 t/ner,
folksongs from the Kentucky Mountains. New York, 1916.

>X vman and Brockway, Songs: Loramc Wyman and Howard Brockway, Twenty Ken-
tucky Mountain Songs Boston, 1920

AT///

PREFACE

It behooves me, first of all, to thank those about me for their kindly
forbearance while this book was being prepared. The task has been a long,
arduous, and exacting one. The swimming was not always with the current.
Choppy seas there were a plenty. However, helping hands have always been
ready. I am indebted to so many that I feel helpless to express my sincere
appreciation. I have not experienced a single bit of unwillingness to assist
in any way whenever help has been sought. To all I am profoundly grateful.

Special thanks are due to Professor George L. Kittredge for sending
references to songs and, above all, for his constant encouragement. I am
indebted to Mr. Phillips Barry for spotting a number of songs and for
providing important and interesting comments. I am no less indebted to
Mrs. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm for many helpful suggestions. Professor
Guy B. Johnson very generously gave valuable information about the
John Henry songs. Professor Reed Smith has always been ready to aid with
his expert knowledge of ballads and his veteran experience as a collector. To
my friend, Professor Charles G. Osgood, I am especially indebted for his
fine sympathy, his cheerful encouragement, his valuable suggestions, and
his expert assistance with some of the airs. Many excellent suggestions came
from Mr. Robert W. Gordon at the beginning of our fascinating experience
as collectors of songs. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Daniel S. Gage, of
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, for his keen interest and for his
kindness in contributing many songs. To those who have contributed the
songs, a special word of appreciation is due. They did their bits cheerfully
and graciously. This book will be their monument.

Thanks arc due to the editors of the Journal of American Folk-Lore for
permission to reprint a number of these songs. Likewise I am indebted to
the courtesy of the editor of the Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the
Northeast for permission to reprint two of the songs. I acknowledge also the
willingness of the editor of the Publications of the Modern Language Asso-
ciation of Americano permit the reprinting of "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of
France" with the introductory note. Finally, I wish to thank the editor of the
New Jersey Journal of Education for permission to reprint some of the songs.

Ridgefield, New Jersey, Mellinger Edward Henry

May, 1933.

INTRODUCTION. 1

The discovery in recent years that the traditional ballads of England and
Scotland are still perpetuated in oral transmission to a somewhat surprising
extent in the Southern Appalachians of America has not only turned the
attention of scholars in that direction, but has added a new element of
romance to that deeply interesting region. The charm and lure of these
highlands are gripping. Let the traveler once tread their paths and he will
be drawn to them again and again irresistibly because of the peculiar at-
tractiveness and friendliness of these southern peaks and ranges with the
soft blue atmosphere. "A pastoral charm seems to rest upon the scenery," 2
said an English traveler many years ago. Owing to climatic conditions and to
the fact that these regions were not affected during the glacial period, the
mountains are often cultivated, or are used for orchards or for grazing pur-
poses, to much higher altitudes than are those in the northern ranges of
America. "Nearly all of them," says Horace Kephart, "are clad to their
tops in dense forest and thick undergrowth. Here and there is a grassy
*bald' : a natural meadow curiously perched on the very top of a mountain.
There are no bare, rocky summits rising above timberline, few jutting crags,
no ribs and vertebrae of the earth exposed. Seldom does one see even a naked
ledge of rock. The very cliffs are sheathed with trees and shrubs, so that one

1 The Introduction is in part rewritten from various articles by the editor appearing in
'I hi' New YorkE vening Post ("Outings" page), some of which are : (i) "The Blue Ridge of
North Carolina", March 23, 1923; (2) "North Carolina Trails'*, August 13, 1923;
(i) "South as a Summer Resort", August 17,1923; (4) "Trampcrs' Trails through North
( .irolina Highlands", August 31, 1923 (Copied mAs/jew/Ie Citizen, October 8, 1923,
and followed October 9 by an editorial entitled, "Our Mountain Trails"); (5) "North
Carolina Trails", October 31, 1923, (6) "North Carolina Field for Exploring Hikes",
December 28, 1923; (7) "Hunting Mountain Ballads", August 22, 1930; (8) "Adventures
in the Great Smokies", August 29, 1930; etc.

The editor's articles and head-notes to ballads in the New Jersey Journal of Education
have also been drawn upon as material for the Introduction. These may be found in the
following issues: February, 1926, p. 5; March, 1926, p. 6, September, 1926, p. 20,
February, 1927, p. 7; June, 1927, p. 9, December, 1927, p. n, March, 1928, p. 13;
February, 1929, p. 10; March, 1929, p. 12; April, 1929, p. 10; May, 1929, p. 9, September,
T 9 2 9> P- 9J November-December, 1929, p. 10; January, 1930, p. 10; March, 1930, p. 8;
October, 1930, p. 4; November-December, 1930, p. 6; January-February, 1931, p. 15.

2 Charles Lanman- Adventures in the Wtlds of North America, London, 1854, p. 177.

Introduction

treading their edges has no fear of falling into an abyss." 3 These mountains
are therefore more thickly populated than those in the north. The scenery is
magnificent. The atmospheric condition lends a peculiar charm to the
panoramic views, for these highlands cover a great area and do not lie in
perceptible ranges. They appear as one vast whole, though they are dis-
tinguished as ranges by name, such as Blue Ridge, Great Smoky, Black,
Pisgah, Balsam, Nantahala, Cowee, Tusquitee, Beech, Roan, etc. Here is the
superb sight of mountain overtopping mountain and reaching over vast areas
of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia and
here in this still somewhat isolated region the people speak, to some extent
at least, a language of the past a language in many respects like that of
Shakespeare's time and sing the old ballads and folk-songs.

"The Blue Ridge! What mountains ever offered themselves to the sun so
enchantingly as the long curve of the Appalachian chain where it passes
through Virginia and North Carolina down to Alabama, running all the way
full southwest! This battlement of heaven was not named by accident. It was
named Blue because there was no other name for it. It is blue ; tremendously,
thrillingly blue; tenderly, evasively blue. And the sky that contains it is also
entrancingly blue; even the storms do not make it sullen, and when they
pass, the sun breaks out more radiantly than ever. Beyond the Blue Ridge in
North Carolina, other and higher mountains rise like spirit forms into the
deep sky, rank upon rank, height upon height, guarded as it were and
protected by the encircling wall of the Blue Ridge." 4

Strictly speaking the southern highlands are located in western North
Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The average tourist from the North takes a
run into Virginia and thinks he is seeing the high mountains of the South.
However, a visitor can soon reach the southern plateau either from Bristol,
Tennessee, or from the east via Winston -Salem, North Carolina.

The two ranges seen in Virginia, the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies, continue
into North Carolina and Tennessee, but there they reach great heights.
There are two hundred and eighty-eight peaks in the southern highlands
above 5,000 feet; there arc forty-six peaks above 6,000 feet; and twenty-one
peaks are higher than Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. Mt. Mitchell in
North Carolina is 6,711 feet, and Clingman Dome, Le Conte, and Mt.

J Hoi ace Kepharr. Our Southern Highlanders^ New York, 1913, p. 51.
4 Margaret W. Morlcy: The Carolina Mountains^ Boston, Houghton Miffhn Co.,
1913, p. 6.

Introduction

Guyot in the Great Smokies lack only a few feet of that height. 5 There is a
boundary ridge between Tennessee and North Carolina about sixty-five
miles long with an average altitude of 5,000 feet. These mountains are the
oldest in the world. On them were born all the hard wood trees in America
probably in the world. There are one hundred and twenty different kinds
of trees in the Great Smokies. Starting amid sycamores, elms, gums,
willows, persimmons, chinquapins, one comes into a region of beech, birch,
basswood, magnolia, cucumber, butternut, holly, sourwood, box elder, ash,
maple, buckeye, poplar, hemlock and a great number of other growths along
the creeks and branches. On the lower slopes are many species of oak with
hickory, hemlock, pitch pine, locust, dogwood, and chestnut. Oaks reach a
diameter of five or six feet. Chestnut trees grow from six to nine feet across.
Tulip trees are ten to eleven feet in diameter and are often two hundred feet
high. It is sometimes seventy or eighty feet to the nearest limb. Beech,
birch, buckeye and chestnut persist to 5,000 feet. There are more plants in
the Smokies than anywhere outside of the tropics. As has been said before,
these mountains escaped the glacial periods ; they are, therefore, rounded and
wooded to the tops. Wild streams, waterfalls, cascades, and deep gorges
abound. More varied scenery is found here than in the Rockies. Moreover,
these highlands cover an area equivalent to that covered by the Alps, or, a
territory as large as that of England and Scotland.

As weather conditions in that regjon are commonly misunderstood, it will
not be out of place to point out that one sleeps there under blankets the year
round. Let it be remembered also that there is an average altitude of
2,700 feet in these mountains. The nights are always cool though the sun
may be hot at times during the day. During some summer seasons it rains
about two days out of three, though usually only a short shower. No more
equable climate is to be found short of California. 6

The statistics arc from Horace Kepharfs Our Southern Highlanders.

The New York Eventng Post, August 17, 1923, has the following. "aMclhngcr

K Henry _ wiitcs us from Montreat, N. C., to tell us how cool it has been

there this season. 'Why do you go south in the summer time''' is a question so often
asKcd by New York friends that 1 feel quite certain that it will be a long time before the
charm of the Southern Highlands will send anything like a universal call noithward,'
he writes. 'Popular prejudices are deep rooted. One of the most amusing instances has
been a letter from a New York friend asking me to observe the thermometer daily and
let him know the registration. This friend has heard me praise the delightful summer
climate of the North Carolina mountains. All my eloquence ft 11 on barren soil. "Do you
want to roast?" exclaimed one friend. Another cried, "Lord, you must like hot weather."

Introduction

The reader, or the stranger, visiting the southern highlands for the first
time, should visualize as far as possible the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky
Mountains as two separate and somewhat parallel ridges running nearly
north and south, the former, of course, lying farther east than the latter.
These two ranges of the Appalachian Mountain system, the Blue Ridge and
the Allcghanies, running across Pennsylvania and through Virginia, coalesce
in southwestern Virginia and then again spread and become distinct in
North Carolina and Tennessee, where their peaks become the highest points
east of the Mississippi. A great mass of cross ranges lie between and connect
the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, chief of which are, as in part mentioned
before, the Stone, Beech, Roan, Yellow, Black, Newfound, Pisgah, Balsam,
Cowee, Nantahala, and Tusquitee. As a whole they are much higher than
the Blue Ridge. The natives refer to the great western range running north
and south as the Alleghanies, but the geographies name it the Unakas. This
system is cut into segments by rivers, namely, the Nolichucky, the French
Broad, the Pigeon, the Little Tennessee and the Hiawassee. The segments
thus formed arc known as the Iron, the Northern Unakas, the Bald, the

*J have spent many summers here in the mountains of North Carolina I have cx-

?cricnccd more heat here in the last few weeks than ever before Following my Neu
'oik friend's advice, 1 have watched the thermometer through July and have not seen

it go over seventy-nine degrees. . We have been sleeping under foui

covers and many an evening \vc have betn glad to warm ourselves at the open fire '"

In a later issue of the New York Post, that of October 31, 1923, is the following com-
ment: ttl l am much gratified that we are so\\ ing good seed on fertile soil 1 writes Alellmger
K. Hcnrv . who has sent articles on hikes in North Carolina. ''The Asheville

Citizen of October 8, just received fiom friends in Black Mountain, quotes 'J'rawpers'
7>rf//r through North Carolina Highlands giving the Evening Post prominent credit. The
Ashvillc Citizen of October 9 follows this with an editorial. I believe we may get some
blazes and lodges there yet.""

Referring to the article in the / J 0r/, the (.itt^en says: "Mr. Henry tells more about the
trails, the mountain scenery available to the hiker, and about the lack of lodges and inns
than most of the natives have learned, excepting, of course, the men who carry on the
work of the United States Forest Service. There is little hiking through these mountains,
or compaiativcly so, judging from the popularity of this pastime in other sections of the
country. For years the Forest Service has been marking out trails and urging the people
to give aid in opening lodges for the entertainment of travellers overnight. But even
vet an inexperienced hiker would soon get lost in the woods, and if he doesn't, he wants a
comfortable place when darkness falls When Western North Carolina, Inc , begins its
work, there will be common efforts put forth in twenty-five counties, at least, to mark
trails, establish inns and advertise to the whole country the attractions of the trails through
the mountains of this region. And then many will come in response to this invitation
just as Mr. Henry comes and finds more than enough to repay him for the extra efforts
now required in locating trails and points of interest."

Introduction

Great Smoky and the Southern Unakas, the order being from north to south
as named. The Cumberlands of Tennessee are not attached either to this
range or to the Blue Ridge but are a continuation of the low mountains of
Kentucky. Until recently little was known of these high mountains of the
South. Horace Kephart, the author of Our Southern Highlanders and prob-
ably the best informed man of the southern mountains, tells us that when he
first went to the Great Smokies he could not find so much as a magazine
article that had been written about them. Kephart published his book in
1913. Four years later I made my first visit to these highlands.

A more intimate picture of life in this interesting region can best be given
by drawing from personal narratives of experiences as written down at the
time. The following is a detailed account of a day's wanderings down the
Broad River in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the summer of 1922.
Farther on its way the stream is known as the Rocky Broad. It should be
distinguished from the French Broad.

There is almost invariably a foot -log at each crossing, though you have to
search to find it. The trick is to follow the obscure path beginning at the
point where the road crosses the stream and continue along the river till you
find the log. Twice 1 found it had been washed away, and I had to take off
my shoes and wade the stream.

This section is inhabited by people who arc not very well to do. The
houses, if they may be called such, are of the simplest structure, being
usually built of logs, and containing often only a kitchen and a sleeping
room. At a place where I stopped for a drink of water there were two im-
maculately clean double beds in the kitchen whose bare oak floor showed no
speck of dust. These people may be poor, but they are not slovenly or
careless in their homes. Nor are they lacking in politeness or hospitality. At
this particular place I was entertained with the sprightliest of conversation by
the woman of the house and two young ladies dressed in their Sunday best.
Some miles farther on the way I called for lunch. Such as they had was
supplied salt pork, hard and unpalatable cornbread, a glass of milk, and
(after some search in the hen-coop) an egg, which I regarded as ample lunch,
indeed.

It would be misleading to describe the land about these houses as farms.
They are often mere patches of steep mountain slopes. How they can be
worked at all is a wonder. A still greater wonder is how a living can be eked
out. There are growing usually a little corn and a few potatoes, but not

Introdtution

often more than these. Generally a hog or two and a cow complete the make-
up of the farm. Horses are rare for they are of little use on these mountain
sides. Oxen, if they can be afforded, are better. One man with a two room
house assured me that he had brought up nineteen children on the place.

I began to ask for a place to remain for the night and was told of a village
which I was able to reach just at dark. It bore the name of D . . . . , though
there were but two or three houses. I at once recognized the place, recom-
mended to me as a better-class "farm." The little woman I met, weary under
two pails of milk, referred me to "him" when I sought supper and bed. As
the man of the house was for the moment not to be found, the little woman
kept repeating "whatever he says when he comes." At last "he" came and we
had supper of salt pork, hard corn bread, and fried potatoes the latter,
I believe, being special. Before retiring, in spite of the darkness and the fear
of rattlers, I made my way through the tall grass and bushes to the Broad
River where I refreshed myself after the day's long tramp by a plunge into
the cooling waters. The floor of my bed -room, as were those of the other
rooms throughout the house, was bare, but the bed was clean and com-
fortable. I slept soundly and arose to a breakfast of salt pork, corn bread,
and fried eggs.

I have tramped these Southern Appalachians during summer seasons for
many years. 7 I have been obliged at times to leave high altitudes for valley
ways. This has given the opportunity for intimate acquaintance with the
manners and customs of different communities. I have learned many things
of trees and plants. I have seen much of bird life and the ways of wild ani-
mals. I have fished in mountain streams and have eaten of the fish. I have
bathed and been refreshed in the wild mountain pools and lakes. Thus I have
made the hike of the great Appalachian Trail not a job but rather a joy.

The great Appalachian Trail project with a walking path over the crest of
the entire length of the Appalachian system from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to

7 * k J'hc lure of the mountains held me as a boy. 1 was at an early age scrambling over
ranges of the Blue Ridgt Mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. In 1 899, immediately
after graduating from college, 1 did many of the mountains of the Odenwald and the
Schwarzwald in Germany, making the ascent of the Fcldberg, the next highest mountain
of that country. 1 walked from Lucerne, S\v itzerland, over the Alps via the St. Gothard
Pass to Milan, Italy, except for a few miles between Belhnzona and Como. In America
] have climbed Graybeard, Grandfather Mountain, and Mount Mitchell in North
Carolina, the latter being the highest peak east of the Mississippi, Katahdin m Maine,
all the highet peaks of the Green Mountains of Vermont and Whitefacc and Marcy in
the Adirondack^" ("The Swastika", January 10, 1923).

Introduction

Georgia has taken hold of the imagination of many out-of-door lovers. To
Mr. Benton MacKaye, of Shirley Center, Massachusetts, belongs the dis-
tinction of originating the idea. That the idea is not a dream, but a reality
was brought home to me in a striking manner. Motoring north from Atlanta,
Georgia, to the summit of Neel Gap, a large placard met the eyes:

APPALACHIAN TRAIL.
STATE OF MAINE TO STONE
MOUNTAIN, GEORGIA.
2,000 MILE HIKE.*

And there was the AT marker.

Later, on making the ascent of Clingman Dome in the Great Smokies,
I found that Ranger R. R. Ozmer had blazed the trail with the AT marker.
Recently this veteran woodsman had blazed a way over Mt. Guyot, doubtless
the wildest and most rugged section of mountains to be found anywhere in
the eastern half of the United States. Ozmer has this to say: "While this
trail has now been blazed along the top of the mountain through the new
National Park area, that fact does not mean that j ust anybody could go up in
those mountains and expect to follow it. Even a good woodsman, well-
equipped, would find it a very rugged experience." The N en' York Times
of September 8, 1929, notes that "The Appalachian Trail is being sponsored
by public and private agencies and outdoor clubs to meet the increasing
demand for definite footpaths and camping routes well removed from motor
highways. It extends from Mount Katahdin, Me., to Cohutta Mountain in
the northern part of Georgia, and traverses some of the best -known scenic
areas in the East. It includes southern branches to Stone Mountain, near
Atlanta, and to Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tcnn. It runs partly
through private land and partly in public parks and forests. In New York
State it runs through Putnam and Dutchess Counties to Bear Mountain
Bridge, through The Harriman State Park, around the west side of Green-
wood Lake, along the New York -New Jersey border to High Point State
Park and then on to the Delaware Water Cap."

Ballads and folk-songs accumulated during a fifty -mile hike across the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. No where do the Blue Ridge Mountains
show to better advantage than in the northern end of this state. The valleys

* Note : Since the above was written, it has been decided to make Mt. Oglethorpc,
Ga., the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

Introduction

are pictures of fertile fields and fruitful orchards. The peaks stand out here
in the blue haze most sharply. I recall vividly a hike of one summer's vacation
from Highlands, North Carolina, through Rabun Gap. There through a
week-end we were the well -cared -for guests of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee
School. Now we had the joy of the fifty-mile hike from Rabun Gap to Neel
Gap. Here the Blue Ridge appears in somewhat broken ranges as if a back-
bone was dislocated and the joints of the skeleton had become somewhat
disarranged. The high altitude is maintained (nearly 5,000 feet in some
instances) but the ever thrilling sights of the journey are the loftier ranges of
the Nantahala Mountains to the northward in North Carolina. Sharply
outlined and striking is the changing view of these peaks. They appear all
the more majestic in the distance because ten miles of the journey over the
Blue Ridge are made without a sight of human habitation. First is the grad-
ual rise to Burton Lake, passing Glassy Mountain and Charlie Mountain on
the south. Then there is a steep ascent until one thinks he has surmounted
the Blue Ridge, but the hiker is sure to be thus deceived many times before
he emerges on the final ridge with a clear view of the Nantahalas on the north
and the sea of mountains southward towards Cornelia. Back eastward lie
Rabun Bald, Flat Top, and Double Knobs. But again the eye wanders to the
distant Nantahala range to the northward with its strikingly outlined peaks
till at last the decent is begun at Dick's Creek Gap and the hiker passess from
Rabun County into Towns County. Thence one crosses the Hiawassee River
below Hightower. It is said that the Chattahoochee River near its source
flows at one point within one hundred yards of the Hiawassee, but the latter
goes northward, breaks its way through the mountains and flows into the
Tennessee, while the Chattahoochee wends its way quietly southward to the
Gulf of Mexico

Lunch was enjoyed by a stream pouring down the side of the mountain.
But the greatest thrill was the violent but short -lived mountain storm. These
storms are quite terrifying to the stranger, though in summer they are almost
of daily occurrence in this region. A most vivid account of the danger of
these storms is related by Miss Margaret Morley in her "Carolina Mount-
ains" (See p. 254). She relates the manner in which she was overtaken by
one of these mountain storms on Whiteside Mountain near Highlands, North
Carolina. Here it is said more rain falls than anywhere in America outside of
Pugct Sound. The sight that greets one on the downward western slope
towards Hiawassee is enchanting. Here lie prosperous farms. The way then

Introduction
i

lies through Brasstown Gap to Neel Gap and down the great Appalachian
Trail to Mt. Oglethorpe.

Whereas the calm and peace of the friendly spirit are always with one in
the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Great Smokies have in their wildness and
ruggedness that which forbids intimacy.

"The basic foundation of the Smoky Mountains is a terrible, giant mon-
olith of varied conglomerate sixty-five miles long, of rather forbidding
countenance when viewed in the more serious and lonely aspects of Nature,
such as storm, frozen fog, or thundercloud. It is then that the beholder is
rather estranged from intimacy with the sixty -five miles of solid rock buttress-
ed and braced with its cross -and-counter ridges countless in number,
clothed in the abundant garments of soil and tree and shrub, when its serene
moments of vast benignity and grandeur are for the moment withdrawn or
veiled in a more forbidding presentment." 8

The chief interest to most tourists at the present time is the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. Although the Great Smokies are America's oldest
mountains it is only recently that the general public has begun to know their
charm and beauty. 9 Within the confines of the park, a veritable paradise of

8 Robert L. Mason: 7 he Lure of the Great \moktes^ Boston, Houghton MifTlin Co.,
1927, p. IT.

9 Since writing the above, the new highway over the Great Smokies has been com-
pleted. One can now quickly pass from Whitticr, North Carolina, through the Cherokee
Indian Reservation to Knoxville, Tennessee. There has nevei been any other road over
the Great Smokies except the one built by Colonel W. H Thomas in 1861 by help of
the remnant of the Cherokee Indians It fell into disuse, became impossible for travel
even on hoise back, and at last was almost obliterated and imperceptible. The new
highway <>n the Tennessee side utilizes the course of the old road for some distance but
swings into Newfound Gap in its passage over the great divide. Robert Lindsay Mason
in 7 be Lure of the Great Smokies^ p 6, gives the following interesting information in
regard to Colonel Thomas and the road he built through Indian Gap:

"Colonel W. fl Thomas Will Usdi (Little Will), as the Cherokees lovingly called
him was adopted when an orphan by one of their counsellor chiefs, Youna-guska
(Drowning Bear), and was made chief upon the death of the latter at the Indian's sug-
gestion. Thomas was placed m charge of Cherokee affairs at the Yellow 1 lill Reservation,
North Carolina, by the United States Government in 1841 This little remnant of the
Cherokee Nation, after the removal to the Indian Territory in 1838 numbered only 1220
souls. The removal was conducted in such a vicious and disgraceful manner that it was
no wonder that the white chief turned against his government and adopted the cause
of the Secessionists upon the outbreak of the Civil War.

"He resigned his position as government agent at the Qualla Reservation in 1861 to
join the Confederate cause, and, as a strategic measure to hold^the wavering Cherokees
who were offered bribes of all soits to desert their 'Little >X ill', he employed the total
number of fighting men about six hundred to build the only road that has ever

Introduction

native conditions and a splendid base for expeditions to Gregory Bald,
Clmgman Dome, Thunderhead, etc., is to be found at Cade's Cove,
Tennessee, an oasis-like spot three by six miles in the midst of wilderness.
Entirely surrounded by mountains, the Cove can be reached by automobile
by only one way, a hard surfaced road over Rich Mountain. The approach
from Knoxville is either via Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Elkmont, and Tucka-
leeche Cove; or via Maryville and Tuckaleeche Cove. Cade's Cove is the
best center for exploring the Smokies that we were able to find during our
summer's visit (in 1928) and it is practically free from the haunts of men
except for the native mountaineer in his natural state. The tourist rarely
passes beyond Gatlinburg. Cade's Cove is about forty-five miles farther in
the interior. The post office is Cade's Cove, Tennessee.

In addition to the scenery of the mountains, the trees, and the plants, the
mountain people are most interesting, hospitable, and kindly. As intimated
before, they still talk to some extent the language of Shakespeare's time and
sing the songs and ballads of that period. They cling even yet to the manners
and customs of the 1 8th century. They are mostly descendants of immigrants
(Swiss, German, Scotch-Irish, English) who came to eastern Penny slvania
about 1682 and again about 1740. Many Germans arrived at the former date.
Large bodies of the persecuted Scotch-Irish came from the north of Ireland
at the latter date. These people later followed the mountains southward as
far as North Carolina and Tennessee. In eastern Pennsylvania were born the
ancestors of Lincoln, Boonc, Calhoun, Davy Crockett, Stonewall Jackson,
and Sam Houston.

In "Americans the Twentieth Century Forgot" 10 Miss Laura Thorn-
borough has the following interesting comment on the people she knows
so well :

'"It's a mystery how they make a living,' you murmur to yourself. But
is it a mystery? These descendants of pioneer ancestors, proud of their

spanned the backbone of the Smokies. This road was built at Indian Gap above the
headwaters of Little Pigeon River at an elevation of 5317 feet. It was an impossible grade
from its very inception, and during the sixty-odd years of abandonmeant since that time
it has fallen into such disuse that now only a trace of it remains and this is difficult of
negotiation even on horseback

"There has never been any other road over the Smokies except bear- and man-made
trails. Only travelers af(x>t could traverse its steeps from the Tennessee side of the divide
or from The North Carolina slopes The sinuous trails worn knee-deep in some cases
by Indians were precarious enough at their best to the uninitiated and often misguided
wayfarers vanished forever in the intricate maze never to return again."

TRA\ EL, April, 1928.

Introduction

Anglo-Saxon stock, cling to pioneer ways because of the conditions under
which they live. They are dependent upon their own industry tor the neces-
sities of life. They are their own carpenters, plumbers, wheelwrights,
masons, and shoemakers as a matter of course and of economy. Their
versatility is amazing. Many mountain men build their own houses and make
their own furniture. The women weave towels, rugs, draperies, coverlets
and piece quilts.

"For the most part their wants are few and Nature is kind. The forests
furnish necessary fire-wood and in some cases lumber for the home. A space
is cleared, the inevitable patch of corn planted and frequently a garden.
Many own a cow, pig and chickens and the more prosperous a horse or a
mule. The men farm, hunt and fish. Between seasons they work on the
public roads or for one of the lumber companies that own most of the two
hundred thousand acres of virgin timber that exists at this writing. The
fireside industries help to support many a family. In and around Gatlinburg
there is scarcely a home without its loom.

"Stopping at the home of a weaver you find her singing to a flaxen-haired,
blue-eyed child of two or three, playing at her knees. You pause to catch the
words of the song. It is an old English ballad.

'Is this your bride? 1 think she's miserable brown;

And you could have married as fair a skinned girl

As ever the sun shined on,

As ever the sun shined on.'

"The weaver pauses in her song but not in her work. You are about to
knock when she begins a new song with a more rollicking tune.

'Kill that rooster, shoot him dead.

Don't want him eatin' that shortenin' bread.'"

Speaking of their language, Miss Tornborough quotes the following passage
from John Fox, Jr. :

" 'In his speech the mountaineer touches a very remote past; he keeps in
use old words and meanings that the valley people have ceased to use, but
no where is this usage so sustained and consistent as to form a dialect.'"
Then she goes on: "And Cecil Sharp, the Englishman, declared that
though the southern mountaineer may be uneducated he is not uncultured."
John" Powell in "Virginia Finds her Folk-Music" 11 also refers to the effect
made on Cecil Sharp. He says, "The impression made by the folk -musicians
~"~MUSICs\L COVRIhR, April 23, 1932.

Introduction

upon Sharp is doubly interesting since he was a complete stranger to them
and their ways and since he had behind him the experience of similar collect-
ing in England." He then quotes the following from English Folk- Songs
from the Southern Appalachians.

"'That the illiterate may nevertheless reach a high level of culture will
surprise only those who imagine that education and cultivation are convert-
ible terms. The reason, I take it, why these mountain people, albeit unlet-
tered, have acquired so many of the essentials of culture is partly to be
attributed to the large amount of leisure they enjoy, without which, of course,
no cultural development is possible, but chiefly to the fact that they have one
and all entered at birth into the full enjoyment of their racial heritage. Their
language, wisdom, manners, and the many graces of life that are theirs are
merely racial attributes which have been gradually acquired and accumulated
in past centuries and handed down generation by generation, each generation
adding its quotum to that which it received.'"

Mr. Powell then goes on in his own words :

"In connection with this tribute, it is equally interesting to know with
what feelings the stranger from London was received by his hosts. Maud
Karpelcs, who accompanied Mr. Sharp on his tour, taking down the words
of songs in shorthand, told me in London in 1928 that one of these moun-
taineers paid Mr. Sharp a compliment which he valued above any praise he
had ever received. He was preparing to take his leave after spending the
night in a primitive farm-house. His host and hostess expressed the keenest
regret that he could not linger with them. 'We all wish you could stay,'
declared the old man wistfully at patting. 'You are so nice and common.'
And this was merely the unlettered man's way of expressing what Mr. Sharp
had felt of him and his fellows : that they shared a racial heritage which gave
them, more than anything else could, a basis of understanding and mutual
enjoyment."

If the people of the southern mountains still seem primitive in their mode
of life, they prefer their way of life and its independence. They are a proud,
brave, shrewd, reticent people. However, you will learn little of this purest of
American stock by driving through the highways in a car. One must tarry
with them and be one of them. One must, indeed, in their understanding
of the word be truly "common" to enjoy the refreshing quality of much that
is typically American. Among them the spirit of early America is less spoiled
and their habits of life and speech less changed probably than in any other

Introduction

part of the country. There is something very homely in the vernacular of

their speech, their folk -tales, and their songs. It is not necessary to search

for their strange bits of narrative and snatches of melody. If you will bide

among these hospitable and cultured Americans for a time, you will hear the

stories and songs. However, it is not always easy to gain the confidence of

these interesting highlanders so that they will give expression to their

melodies. They are naturally diffident. One must live with them, talk with

them of their lives, become a part of their family interest, and tactfully

* suggest by the reciting of some tale, their own folk-songs. Once interested

in romance and started in the songs that have been orally transmitted through

s the generations, they are likely to pour forth a well of literature unguessed in

people so simple.

To illustrate this manner of tarrying and the way ballads came as a result,
I can do no better than draw from my account of "Life in the Great Smokies"
*as printed in various newspapers and later rewritten and published in The
New Jersey Journal of Education for October, 1930.

After a ballad search that took us into the mountain regions of South
i Carolina and Georgia, we left the Blue Ridge Range with its remarkably
varied scenes, went into the great Smokies on their western side and estab-
lished our headquarters in Cade's Cove, Tennessee, one of the most isolated
spots in these mountains, and the base from which the ascent to the high
altitudes was made.

' On August the yth, 1930, accompanied by Mr. John Oliver, whose cabin
we occupied, his two boys and Edmund Waring, another young man, I went
up Shuler's Creek, formerly Anthony's Creek, at Spruce Flat School House
'and over Bote Mountain to Thunderhead. We stopped for lunch just under
> Rocky Top, one of the three peaks of Thunderhead. As we finished our
lunch a violent electrical storm broke with a suddeness that was startling. We
were held there for an hour, protected only by our slickers. The lightning
played all around us. Five trees were shattered within a radius of one
hundred feet. One of the trees was set on fire and was still burning the
next day. Later we found many other trees that were literally riddled. The
leaves were strewn on the ground. It occurred to me that Thunderhead was
well named.

While passing over Bote Mountain I was interested in the nests of "hang-
ing birds." One I was able to reach from my horse. I bent down the limb
to peep into it, but the young birds had flown. The nest was quite empty,

Introduction

but very smooth and cozy within. Mr. Oliver interested us with tales of
Theo Rose, the outlaw, who haunted these regions for years. He was finally
captured and brought to Maryville. So widely had his fame spread that
people lined both sides of the streets to see him as he was brought in. Then
they flocked to the jail to look him over till at last Theo could stand it no
longer and cried, "Y* damn fools, do y' think I got horns like a cow?" Theo,
after a time, was released but later met a violent death at the hands of another.

As we proceeded we recognized the location apparently of two moonshine
stills. Later we came upon a real bootleggers' camp where there was, at
least, one fugitive from justice.

During the storm we were under rhododendrons that rose to twenty or
twenty-five feet and whose trunks were almost as thick as a man's body.
The marvel of these trails, it seems to me, is chiefly the soft paths under the
arched laurel and ivy, for always the mountaineer names the rhododendron,
laurel, and the laurel, ivy. During part of the ascent we were on the old
Anderson Road, that highway undertaken so many years ago by Dr. An-
derson, the founder of Maryville College, who constructed many miles of
road with the aid of Cherokee Indian labor.

We traveled over this road to Spence Field and proceeded leisurely over
the three points of Thunderhead, Rocky Top, Thunderhead itself and Laurel
Top. The views of the Cove from each are splendid. Across on Rich Mount-
ain we could sec the fire that for some days had been giving the warden
trouble. Briar Knob lay beyond so we moved towards it. We planned to
camp in Beech Nut Gap between Thunderhead and Briar Knob. The rest
of the party had preceded me with the horses and were out of sight. Sud-
denly, without warning and in an instant, far quicker than I can write this,
my head and face were literally plastered with yellow-jackets. They had
been maddened apparently by the tread of the horses that had gone with the
party before me. In attempting to brush the yellow- jackets from my face
and head, 1 knocked off my glasses. Then I tried to cover my head with a
slicker I carried. Being thus blinded, I fell almost upon the nest of the \cl-
low-jackets, injuring myself severely, but was able to rise, now thoroughly
covered with yellow-jackets, that attacked me with still greater ferocity.
Meantime the pain was agonizing, for a yellow-jacket's sting takes effect at
once. 1 was by this time thoroughly panic-stricken and ran as hard as 1
could, groaning in a muffled voice, for 1 was in torment. When I burst
through the rhododendrons, clawing at my head, Mr. Oliver ran up and

Introduction

rubbed the squirming mass out of my hair. I was, of course, almost crazed
with pain and slept little that night. All of us agreed later that it was the
biggest nest of yellow-jackets we had ever seen. Mr. Oliver cheered me by
telling about a man over in Weir's Cove that was stung to death and of how
a sheep died in his own yard from the stings of bees.

This would seem like adventures enough for one trip into the mountains,
but we found another in our search for water. That summer's drought in the
South had left the mountains almost dry. The electrical storms brought
little rain. We had scarcely any water in the evening in our camp at Beech
Nut Gap and had none for breakfast the next morning, nor did we find any
until near noon of that day.

We retraced our way over Thunderhead to the Spence Cabin, that historic
and tragic place, in the hope of finding water there, but the spring was
quite dry. Here some years ago Tom Sparks was shot to death by Earl
Cameron. Strange as it may sound, Mr. Oliver, my guide, conducted the
funeral services over Tom Sparks' body, though the latter had been a con-
fessed accomplice in the feud that led to the burning of Mr. Oliver's barn,
horses and cattle. Tom's grandson, Wade, did the actual burning along with
a Gregory boy. Two weeks later the Sparkses and Gregorys shot one another
up. Wade Sparks then squealed on the Gregorys. So the whole truth came
out and the trial followed.

We took up our journey again and passed over Anthony Top and Little
Bald, through the Sugar Tree Gap, where the lightning had played particular
havoc the previous day, and into Campbell's Gap, to the Russell Cabin
where we found a spring and ate our lunch.

It was over in North Carolina from this point, on Eagle Creek, that Theo
Rose, the outlaw, lived. Jake, the father, and his three sons, Thco, Eagle
and George, always known as 'Tit", are remembered as handsome, well
set-up men of great physical prowess, who could be loyal friends and soft
spoken to women. Yet both "Pit" andThco were killed in deadly combat
and Eagle was shot from ambush. This kind of wild existence was impressed
upon me by the fact that as we ate our lunch a fugitive from justice lay
stretched out on the grass before us. There are still wild men and wild deeds
in these mountains.

We now passed through Little Mill Creek Gap and Big Mill Creek Gap
along Lawson's Ridge to Tater Patch Knob, Bear Pen Knob, and Lawson
Gaunt Lot. Last summer season one of Mr. Oliver's cows had concealed a

Introduction

new-born calf on Bear Pen Knob. During the previous summer this same
cow had "reported" to the herders' cabin over on Fork Ridge that a bear had
killed and carried off her calf. She had come to the herders in evident
distress and would not leave the cabin until they went with her. She led them
directly to her partly devoured calf, somewhere over in Ekanetelee Gap (the
herders got that bear later). The next summer a herder came off the moun-
tain and reported that a bear had again carried off this same cow's calf. Mr.
Oliver hastened up the mountain and found his cow grazing back on Lawson's
Ridge and in much need of being milked. However, he was able to drive
her to his field in the Cove only with great difficulty as she seemed to be
reluctant to leave the Ridge. Meantime she would not stay in the field when
placed there, but broke out several times and seemed to be restless and in
distress. Again came a herder to Mr. Oliver to say that the calf was still alive
but almost starved. The herders were driving the steers over Bear Pen Knob
when the calf, hearing the bells (its mother had a bell) arose from its place of
concealment behind a log, bleated, then tottered and fell. As all the cattle
were steers it was impossible to let the calf suck. However, one of the herders
cut off a piece of fat meat winch the calf greedily devoured. Then it followed
the herd to Russell's Cabin, where it was placed in an enclosure. There
Mr. Oliver found it the next day, but it was very weak. He had to carry it
much of the way to his automobile at the foot of the mountain. When it was
placed in the car and driven to its mother, the old cow almost climbed
over the gate to reach its lost baby. However, it was allowed to suck but
little at a time during that day. It recovered and is now a handsome, sleek
young fellow.

On Lawson's Ridge were further evidences of the destruction the lightning
had worked on the previous day. These Smoky Mountains storms are
frightful. A story is told of how two herders, Andy Macaulcy and Joe Lawson
Joved to spend their Sundays a-bce-hunting. After a day spent in this wise
they were wending their way towards their cabin. A storm was brewing.
Andy had just stepped over a huge log with an upreared limb lying on the
trail when the lightning struck the limb, ran along the log and split it in two
parts. Joe then stepped over the shattered log. Neither man spoke until he
reached the cabin. After both had sat down and smoked a while, "Uncle"
Joe Lawson remarked, "By God! I will never hunt bees on Sunday again!"

The journey through Ekanetelee Gap is a whole story in itself. This is a
place in which to spend a week, not a few hours. Here is a virgin forest of

Introduction

hardwood trees, the largest, I believe, in the world. It was still at that time
the property of the Morton Butler Lumber Company, for the Park Com-
mission had not yet been able to effect a purchase. (Other lumber companies
still operating in the Great Smokies at that time were the Kitchen Lumber
Company, Little River Lumber Company, Montvale Lumber Company, and
the Champion Fibre Company). Here are tulip trees (yellow poplar) eight
to nine feet in diameter and seventy-five feet to the first limb. I saw a wild
cherry tree that I believe to be about one hundred feet tall and three feet in
diameter. The "Marion Poplar" is said to be the next largest tulip tree in the
Smoky Mountains. It is about nine feet in diameter and takes its name, if I
recall correctly, from Marion Creek which flows into Ekanetelee Creek at
this point.

Ekanetelee Gap has not only the attraction of these huge monuments of
the mountain; its floor is soft with pine needles and moss, while the cas-
cades play along the creek. Many fine box-elders (calico) and cucumber
(mountain magnolia) trees give a deep shade. One of the wonders of this
place of wonders has almost been destroyed recently by that blind ignorance
that sometimes accompanies any general order. Men were sent into the gap
to clear the path. Now, by the side of the trail lies one of those moss -covered
giants of the forest, a tulip tree. From this great fallen monarch had grown
several birch trees and some hemlock, not to mention rhododendron bushes.
The birch trees had reached perhaps the height of twenty-five feet. Many
times had photographs been taken of this interesting sight. Now, I believe,
at least one of these birch trees, a hemlock and some rhododendrons, all with
their roots in this great fallen log, have been chopped down. It is hard to see
the reason for this. The log lay well to the side of the trail. Surely the trees
growing upon it would not interfere with the path. At least the trimming
off of a few limbs, it seems, would have been sufficient.

As we neared Gregory Bald, the ascent of which I made two summers ago,
1 thought of the many stories told of "Uncle" Cheoah Gregory, the grandson
of Russell Gregory, who gave his name to Gregory Bald, and the uncle of
John Oliver. Though honest and upright, he was rough and sometimes
vulgar in his language, but genial and loved his moonshine. Once many
years ago in crossing a particularly rough ridge on the North Carolina side of
the Smokies that gave him much difficulty and an irritating injury, he gave
it a name which it bears to this day and can be found on the maps.

At another time "Uncle" Cheoah had imbibed considerable moonshine.

Introduction

As he started home from the local meeting place, he invited his quaint-
speaking friend, "Uncle" Billy Feezel, to get up on the horse behind him,
saying, "Billy, Billy, get up behind me and I'll take you SAFE HOME,
Billy." But Billy answered in his well-known mannerism, "The probability
is, the probability is, I'm a little bit the safest on the ground." This dialogue
was repeated by each a number of times, much to the amusement of the
assembled mountaineers, but it ended in "Uncle" Billy's walking home.

"Uncle" Billy Feezel once in his old age found himself obliged to take
shelter at a mountain cabin where a number of young people had gathered
for an evening's entertainment and were playing the game of snap, in which
the young lady snaps her fingers to the young man of her choice. One young
woman out of courtesy, snapped "Uncle" Billy. Nonplussed, he blurted out
in his honest, plain-spoken fashion, but with his usual repetition. "The
probability is, the probability is, 1 was snapped many years ago."

My automobile was awaiting us at the foot of the mountain in front of
"Uncle" Billy Myers' home. No story of Cade's Cove is more thrilling than
the talc of how an eagle carried off his wife, Hattie Carrell Myers, as a child.
Her name was then Herron and she lived with her parents in Happy Valley
on Abrams Creek, somewhat beyond Cade's Cove. Her mother was doing
the family washing. The child sat in the yard. Suddenly an eagle swooped
down, fastened its talons in the little girl's clothing and started to fly off.
However, the mother screamed so loudly that the eagle became frightened
and dropped the child that fell into some bushes and was uninjured.

An interesting story of an eagle is told of Mr. Oliver's grandfather who
had gone into the mountains to "call" wild turkeys. After calling them to-
gether, he noticed an eagle hovering above them and observed that the
turkeys formed themselves into a compact mass, heads together. As the
eagle swooped down almost upon them, every turkey disappeared in a
different direction with the quickness of a flash of lightning. The eagle, of
course, beat himself on the ground where the turkeys had been massed
together. This same scene was enacted in the same way for several times.
At last the eagle, wearied of the fruitless game, flew off, leaving the turkeys
in peace.

According to "One -Armed Jimmy" Lawson, many years ago Mary N.
Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock), the novelist, lived at "Uncle" Dan
Lawson's. As she was lame, "Uncle" Dan took her on horseback over the
mountain trails of the Great Smokies. She wrote while here, according to

Introduction

tradition, In the Stranger-People's Country and In the Tennessee Mountains.
One might suspect that she wrote while there The Prophet of the Great
Smoky Mountains and possibly The Despot of Broowsedge Cove.

It is doubtful if ever such luck has fallen to a ballad collector as that which
came to us in Cade's Cove on my return from the mountain tops. A bit of
kindness to a Great Smoky mountaineer while we were visiting the Cove
two years before had opened a whole field of traditional ballads. It led to an
introduction to the Harmon family from whom we at that time obtained some
rare songs. Among these are: "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard",
"Larrikin", "Johnny Scot", "Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter", "Lady
Isabel and the Elf Knight", "Earf Brand", "Young Beichan", "Lord
Thomas and Fair Annet", "James Harris", "Bonny Barbara Allan", "The
Maid Freed from the Gallows", etc. Then the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park Commission bought out our family of singers, and all its
members removed to the mountains of northern Georgia. Now the un-
expected happened when our singers returned to Cade's Cove for a visit on
August 1 1. There were sixteen of them all in one truck. They spent the
best part of two days at our cabin and sang twenty -four songs which Mrs.
Henry recorded. The titles of some of the songs secured on this momentous
occasion are "Sweet Trinity", "The Mermaid", "The Goodman", "Bam-
boo Briar", "Home, Daughter, Home", "The Twa Sisters", "Little White
Babes", "The Crafty Farmer", "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin",
"The Farmer's Curst Wife", "The Gypsy Laddie", "The Lass of Roch
Royal", etc. The two rarest acquisitions, however, came )ust at the end of
this song fest when Mrs. Henry was able to record "King Henry Fifth's
Conquest of France", a song hitherto not found in America, and "Little
Dicky Whigburn", which Mr. Phillips Barry describes as the fourth known
\ crsion in English of a satirical cantefable traditional in nearly every country
>f Europe. 12 Most of the ballads were recorded from the Dinging of the
father, "Uncle" Sam Harmon and the mother, "Aunt" Polly. However,
songs were also obtained from their children, Laura, Burlcy, Austin, and
Ether. Many songs also came from the eldest daughter, Mrs. Mary Tucker,
and her daughter, Rachel. Mary had been living in Georgia for some years
and was instrumental in influencing her family to remove near her when its
members were forced to leave Cade's Cove.

12 This paiagraph,\uth some revision, is printed by the courtesy of IT ord Study (Ci. & C.
Merriam Co., Springfield, Mass ), June, 1932.

2* 19

Introduction

We tried to find out something of their family history and from whom
they learned their songs. It is almost impossible, from the piecemeal and
imperfect information obtained, to give anything like an accurate account
of the antecedents of this family of singers. They always spoke very fondly
of Granddaddy Hicks who was "Uncle" Sam's grandfather on his mother's
side and with whom he lived as a child. It is interesting to note that Sam and
Polly are step-brother and step-sister and that they married at the ages of
seventeen and twelve respectively, so Granddaddy Hicks was really granddaddy
to both, but that is a story to tell later. Sam stated that Granddaddy Hicks
came to Cade's Cove from Watauga County, North Carolina. Sam who was
only a few years old and his mother accompanied his grandfather. The
other grandchildren must have been left in Watauga County as Sam says he
has many relatives there and insists that his brother, Andy, still lives near
Brushy Creek on Beech Mountain, though our efforts to locate any near
relatives have been unsuccessful.

The interesting thing to determine is whether they originally emigrated
from England or Ireland. They hold to the statement that Granddaddy
Hicks came from England when he was four years old, but "Aunt" Polly
says that she is sure that there is Irish in Sam's blood, because "he knows lots
of funny stories and has red hair". John C. Campbell in his exhaustive and
excellement work, The Southern Highlander and Hn Homeland, bears out
this statement in his general comment in regard to the racial descent of these
early settlers. He says: "That the Watauga colonists were Scotch-Irish has
been generally accepted, and in view of the fact that the areas from which
they came was largely occupied by this race, the belief seems justified." 13

While we have this somewhat indefinite information for the maternal side,
it seems that the Harmons may have come from Germany for they tell the
following interesting story of the first Harmon of their family: A Harmon
married an English woman and emigrated from Germany to America. They
established a home in Watauga County, North Carolina, and there had a
family. One day they sent one of their sons to a neighbor, several miles
distant, to borrow some needed article. In the meantime a cloudburst came
and played havoc along the river where the Harmons lived. The home and
all the family were destroyed. The boy, who had been sent away, was the
only one that escaped. His name was Wilder Harmon. Tradition has it

13 John C. Campbell. The Southern Highlander and His }lomeland t Russell Sage
Foundation, New York, 1921, p. 59.

Introduction

that he was bound out as was the custom with orphans in that day. This
Harmon was always spoken of as the "bound boy." In the summer of 1932
we recorded from the singing of Sam, a song -story of the Harmons. As it
mentions Washington, they think that the history of their family in America
began before the Revolution. 14

14 Mr. Harmon's song: "Harmon and His Sons," recorded July 27, 1932.

1 . Come, all yc brave and comely boys,
And assist me in my story, sir.

The God above to-scnds his love

To Harmon and his sons, sir

We went over the hill with free goodwill

To cut and slay and cat our rill

Of good fat bear and deer, sir

For tore the lit, for tore the lit,

For all the rudle lie ding.

2. We traveled on Watauga Creek
Says, you may say the same, sir.
The old man to fix the camp

And the boys to hunt the game, sir.

We hadn't traveled very fur

Before there was a mighty stir.

The fire in the laurel spur

And the Indian sign it did incline

To the blue stone line to stress the port and terry mr"-,

For tore the lit, for tore the lit,

For all the rudle lie ding.

3. The draper being with the boys
Was first that saw the sign, sir
Straightest to the old man run
Without a loss of time, sir.
Says, here we can no longer stay ,
We must fix to haste away ,

We must rly this mountain high
With hue and cry for fear we die,
The hills may save our heads, sir.
For tore the lit, for tore the lit,
For all the rudle he cling.

4. The draper says,

To let me ride before, sir.

For there is forty Indians

I am sure, sn.

And I don't know how many more;

They pursue and w r e protue [protrude ? ]

And make us rue the very day we come, sir.

For tore the lit, for tore the lit,

For all the ruddle he ding.

Introduction

A story that "Uncle" Sam and "Aunt" Polly love to tell is the one that
follows. It was related in a burst of naive confidence by "Aunt" Polly some-
what in this manner :

Her mother, who was Mrs. Haggcrman, lived near the home occupied
by Granddaddy Hicks with his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs.
Goulder Harmon and little Sam. The families were very intimate. Grand -
daddy Hicks had named his little grand-son, Samuel, for himself and
when the little baby girl came to the Haggermans, had named her Pollyanna
for his wife. One day Mrs. Haggerman and Mrs. Harmon were doing some
sewing in fact, were having a race in needle work. The baby, Polly, was
lying on a bed in the room with little five year old Samuel standing close by.
The baby began to cry which disturbed the racers very much. Mrs. Hagger-
man in her exasperation told little Samuel that she would sell him the baby
for three sticks of wood. Samuel soberly brought in the three sticks of wood,
laid them at her feet, took the baby out on the steps and quieted her. Latet

<j. And 111 threat speed he ruined hjs stccel
And went on ami tuk no heed, sir
O\er log and stump his house, did jump
And he fell dump plump, sir
And his heart did thump
And his breeches got hesmear-ed.
For tore the lit, for tore the lit,
For all the rudle lie ding

6. The Indian rushed up

K>r to knock old 1 larmon down, sn

And Cieorge he come nimbly back

And got the s.ivage do\\n, sir

Then, hear, you stinking son of a bitch,

I'm sticking to \ou like, pitch

And he stuck to him like glue

Anci tore the top of the savage scre\\

yVnd Thorncr gained the field, sir.

For tore the lit, for tore the lit,

For all the rudle he ding

7. And here 's a help

For \\ashmgton ant' his men, sir

From blue stone line to VC atauga Creek

>Xc have summoned every man, sir,

No flmdcr f flint or^] steel can make him reel

No jaimer [jar e>r^J steel can make him feel

For he will die agin the field, sir.

For tore the lit, for tore the lit,

For all the rudle he ding.

Introduction

Mr. Haggerman and Mrs. Harmon died, after which Mrs. Haggerman and
Mr. Harmon married, making little Samuel and little Polly step-brother and
step-sister. Little Polly was too young to remember her own grandparents,
so Granddaddy Hicks came to be like a true grandfather. Polly and Samuel
grew up together and learned songs from Granddaddy Hicks. When Samuel
Harmon, aged seventeen, ran away with Polly Haggerman, aged twelve, and
married her, he stopped all objections from his step-mother (Polly's own
mother) by reminding her that he had bought Polly when she was a baby for
three sticks of wood.

We discovered another treasury of ballads and songs when we sought
out "Big Tom" Wilson's place on Cane River at the northern base of Mount
Mitchell. The road will not appear on the maps. Finding no one at home,
we drove four miles to Ewart Wilson's, "Big Tom's" grandson. The wife of
Ewart Wilson is one of the brightest, keenest, and best educated women we
have ever found in the mountains. We soon got her interested in singing
and ended with a bag of more than a dozen songs, three of them traditional
ballads of the rarest kind. For the story of "Big Tom" Wilson, the great
hunter of the mountains and the man who led the search for Professor Mitchell
at the time that he lost his life while taking observations on the mountains,
see "The Saga of the Carolina Hills" by Hodge Mathes in the Christian
Observer^ July 9, 1930. Also sec "Ewart Wilson's Road Building Feat
Astounds. Remarkable Mountaineer Tells of Father's Unique Career" b}
Ida Briggs Henderson in The Sunday Citizen, Asheville, N. C, July 20, 1930.
The father's name is Adolph ("Dolph") and he and his wife still maintain a
mountain inn at Pensacola, N. C. "Dolph" came to his son's home during
the course of the evening and gave interesting information about the moun-
tain people.

Ballad making continues to go on. There are songs about Floyd Collins,
the Santa Barbara Earthquake, and the hanging of Frances Silvers. That the
simplest domestic incident in a family is sometimes turned into song is
illustrated by the following contributed by Mrs. Wilson who remembers
her father's singing it to her as a child :

i. Oh, well do I remember
The Wilson patent stove
That father bought and paid for
With the cloth the girls had wove.

Introduction

z. And all the neighbors gathered 'round
When we got the thing to go;
They said it would burst and kill us all,
Just twenty years ago.

Mrs. Wilson also learned the following as a child; it has the flavor of the
lowlands rather than of the highlands :

1 . A soldier sat by the road one day

And he was looking very gay;

For by his side he had some meal
That he'd just stole from an old tar-heel.
Chorus

Bye and bye, bye and bye,

I'm going to marry before I die;

Bye and bye, bye and bye,
Marry a girl with a bright blue eye;

Georgia girls none surpasses;
They are sweeter than sorgum molasses.

2. Tn a canteen by his side,

That he was trying hard to hide
From the eye of all who passes,
He had a quart of sorgum molasses.
Chorus

3 . He made a fire to bake his bread

And when it was done he laughing said :

"Tn all the world none surpasses

Good corn bread and sorgum molasses".

Chorus

4. As T went up Atlanta street,

A tar-heel girl I chanced to meet,
Said she to me, "Are you a traveler ?"

"No, by jinks, I'm a goober 16 grabber".

A number of traditional ballads and other songs were recorded from the
singing of Mrs. Wilson, among which were "Sweet Trinity", "Lady Alice",
"Our Goodman", "Little Mohea", "The British Lady", "Sweet Soldier
Boy", "Frankie and Johnny", "The Old Gray Beard a-Shining", "The

j5 Used m the South for a peanut.

2 4

Introduction

Dishonest Miller", etc. Other interesting sources of the songs will appear in
the head-notes.

As has been seen, the ballads of this collection have come to us from the
accident almost of our habits of life in the southern mountains. The sur-
prising thing is the ease with which they did come. The collecting has not
been a job as some have been inclined to make out. Rarely have we journeyed
to any particular place with the one object of obtaining ballads. I here quote
a comment from thzNewarkEveningNem of April 12, 1930, mainly for the
purpose of showing that the manner of securing ballads therein described has
not been our way of obtaining them. The author of the article says that
I have "developed an unusually interesting and fertile hobby as a recent

publication of 'Ballads and Songs of the Southern Highlands' 16 amply

proves." And he continues later: "To collect his ballads from the lips of the
quaint inhabitants of the Southern Appalachians in Kentucky, Tennessee,
and North Carolina, it has been necessary for him to spend weeks and
months living intimately in their midst, often tramping many miles a day to
get some especially striking bit of balladry from the lips of an old inhabitant."
All this sounds very romantic and heroic, but aside from living much in the
midst of people of the mountains I have tramped few miles to obtain songs.
Nor have we ever taken the quest for ballads as seriously as our friend,
Richard West Saunders, banker and author, implies in the following bit of
verse in a letter of August i, 1931 :

" 'Why are you looking so pallid ?'

Mrs. Henry asked, nibbling her salad;

Her husband replied :

'All day have ] tried,

And not got a trace of a ballad' ".

We have never made ballad collecting a burden. We love the mountains
and we love the people. As the daily life of our summers was spent in close
association with the natives, we in a measure fell into their habits of life. We
talked much to them of their lives, their traditions, and their folk stories. The
singing of songs often followed as a matter of course, Mrs. Henry sometimes
joining in when she could. In this way many airs were learned. Others
hearing of our interest in songs, came again and again because they liked us
and regarded us, as they expressed it in their language, as common (able to
mingle with them).

16 Journal of ^ \meri can Folk-Lore, XL1I, 253 300.

Introduction

The songs, consequently, came as the result of nearly a lifetime's interest
in the southern mountains and of many visits in those parts of the Appa-
lachian system. Love of Nature as manifested in the wild mountain fastness-
es and a deep human sympathy with the mountain people were the first
attractions. What golden opportunities for preserving ballads and songs were
allowed to pass during my earlier experiences in the southern highlands!
However, it was not until the summer of 1923 that my interest was turned in
that direction. The spark flamed high at once, and the fascination has grown
ever since. It came about in this manner: On July 23, 1923, Mrs. Henry
and I were sojourning at Robert E. Lee Hall, Blue Ridge, North Carolina.
On that date the late Professor C. Alphonso Smith gave a talk on The Ballad.
He stressed the fact that the traditional ballad had survived better in the
southern highlands than it had in England and Scotland. He pointed out
how they had been perpetuated in oral transmission and emphasized the fact
that ballads were still being commonly sung by the southern mountain
people. Pie repeated much of what he had written in his "Ballads Surviving
in the United States" 17 where he says:

"What is now needed above all else is that the ballads surviving in the
United States through oral tradition be taken down, both words and music,
from the lips of those who still sing them."

Later he adds: "That ballad -collecting if done at all must be done quickl)
is shown by the increasing unwillingness of illiterate people to admit a
familiarity with these songs. Tact must be exercised, though only in the
case of the unlettered, and the unlettered are not, of course, the only deposit-
ories of the traditional ballad."

7V) Professor C. Alphonso Smith, therefore, we arc really indebted for
first turning our interest to ballad collecting. Soon after listening to that
talk on the ballad, we met at Montreat, North Carolina, my friend, Dr. Reed
Smith, who has contributed so much to the scholarship of the ballad in
America. He added flame to our fire, so to speak, by relating some of his
own experiences as a ballad collector.

Almost immediately we were able to record some traditional ballads
through our friends, the Burnetts, with whom we spent part of the summer
on North Fork, near Black Mountain, North Carolina. They invited in for
the evening Mr. C. W. Riddle and his daughter, Mary, who sang for us.
Mr. Riddle had been a lumberman in Madison County, and according to his

J7 'I he Alitucal (Quarterly, January, 1916.

Introduction

own statement, formerly knew a number of songs. We were able to record
a few. Then followed a visit to "Bloody" Breathitt County in Kentucky,
where we reached our final destination by following creek beds on mule
back. That visit resulted in contacts that have brought us many songs.
Once the nucleus of the present collection was formed, encouragement came
from Mr. R. W. Gordon, that veteran collector, who called at our home and
showed much interest in what we were doing. Genuine inspiration came
from the kindly interest of my former teacher, Professor George L. Kittrcclge,
in some of the songs that had been printed. He at once cheered on our quest
for ballads. He has never ceased to encourage and to help. Much enthusiasm
and many helpful suggestions have come from Mrs. Fannie Hardy FLckstorm.
Mr. Phillips Barry not only encouraged our work, but gave much valuable
assistance in spotting rare songs and adding helpful notes and suggestions.
Professor Guy B. Johnson of the University of North Carolina, has shown
more than ordinary interest in the work and has been most generous of his
time in answering letters of inquiry and in making valuable suggestions.
The real and whole-hearted interest ot these and of other friends has in no
small way helped to make this collection of songs into a book.

FOLK-SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS

I
THE ELFIN KNIGHT

(Child, No. 2)

This fragment was recalled by Dr. D. S. Gage of Westminster College,
Fulton, Missouri, who writes as follows: "I heard the lines sung in Illinois
when I was a boy. In those days some pioneer conditions continued and the
singing of ballads was a frequent feature of social gatherings. A good number
of the earlier settlers had come from southern states Virginia, the Caroli-
nas, and many from Kentucky all of whom brought their songs with them.
I heard many of these ballads sung when I was a boy." For American re-
ferences to "The Elfin Knight," see Barry -Eckstorm- Smyth, p. 10. Four ver-
sions of the ballad are printed on pp. 3 1 1. Cf. also PTFLS, No. 10, p. 137.
The lines were obtained from Dr. Gage at Montreat, North Carolina,
July, 1931.

Bring it home on a peacock's feather
And you'll be a true -lover of mine;
Build between the salt-water sea sound
And you'll be a true-lover of mine. 1

3 In a letter of October, 1932, Professor Gage made the following additional comment:

"Did I tell you of another line in that 'Elfin Knight' and of the refrain? It ran this
way as to meter and meaning- there would be a task set by the maiden to her lover
seemingly impossible and she would say (if done)

'And you shall be a true lover of mine'.
After each line was n refrain except the last, 'And you', etc.

ist line

refrain: 'Rose Mary in time'

2nd line . (The maiden's wish, seemingly impossible to fulfill),
refrain 'Rose Alary in time

And vou shall be a true lover of mine '

ist line . . .

refrain: 'Rose Mary in time'

2nd line . . . (The lover's solution of the apparently impossible task),
refrain: 'Rose Mary in time

And 1 will be a true lover of thine'
and so on to the end.

The refrain puzzled me very much till it dawned on me that it is a corrupted form of the
rather common old English refrain, 'Rosemary and thyme,'
at least that might be possible.
The other line is first: something she wished (the building of a house, 1 think).

'Rose Mary in time.'

Second . 'Between the salt water and the sea sand,
And you shall be a true lover of mine.'

1 am not sure about the metrical structure; there may have been more verses or lines
in a stanza. Yours, D. S. Gage."

Ballads and Songs

LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT

(Child, No. 4)

This ballad has wide circulation both in Europe and America. It rivals
"Barbara Allen" and "The House Carpenter" in the number of variants that
have been found in America. See Barry, No. 4; Barry -Eckstorm- Smyth,
p. 14; Belden, No. i ; Brown, p. 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 2; Cox, No. i ;
Davis, No. 3 ; R. W. Gordon, The New York Times Magazine, October 9,
1927, p. 22; Hudson, No. i; Mackenzie, Ballads, No. i; Mackenzie, The
Quest y pp. 93, 174, 182; Sandburg, p. 60; Scarborough, p. 43 ; Shearin, p. 3 ;
Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Reed Smith, No. i ; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. i ;
Wyman and Brockway, p. 82; Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry); XIX, 232
(Belden); XXII, 65 (Beatty), 76 (Barry), 374 (Barry) ; XXVII, 90 (Gardner);
XXVIII, 148 (Perrow);XXXV, 338 (Tolman and Eddy) ;XLII, 2 54 (Henry).
Cf. Cox's headnote (No. i) for further American references. Add Barry,
Bulletin of The Folk- Song Society of the Northeast, No. i, p. 3 ; Jones, p. 13 ;
PTFLS, No. 10, pp. 138 140.

"Pretty Polly." Sung by Mrs. Samuel Harmon, Cade's Cove, Blount
County, Tennessee, August i, 1928. Recorded by Mrs. Henry. Learned by
Mrs. Harmon from grandfather Harmon who came from Watauga County,
N. C. He obtained it by oral transmission from his father. This, as well as
many other traditional ballads in this book, came as the result of an incident
while exploring in the Great Smoky Mountains. We were motoring over
Rich Mountain on our first visit to Cade's Cove, which until a few years ago
was unknown to the outside world. A lone mountaineer toiling along with
his bag of meal was invited to ride. Through this act of assistance we came
to know his rektives, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Harmon, who, apparently won
by this slight help, with unusual freedom from the reserve that characterizes
the southern mountaineer, sang for us as soon as they learned of our interest
in songs.

i. He followed me up

And he followed me down,

When I had no tongue

For to say, "Nay, nay."

Lady Isabel and tbe Elf -Knight

2. "You get part of your father's gold;
And likewise your mother's too,
And go to your father's stable

Where the horses stand thirty and three.

3. "And you get the very best two
Out of the thirty and three
And we go to the old salt sea
And married we will be."

4. She got part of her father's gold,
Likewise her mother's too,

And she went to her father's stable
Where there stood horses thirty and three.

5 . And she mounted on the Turkish brown
And he on the dapple grey

And they rode till they come to the old salt sea,
Three long hours till day.

6. "You get down, my pretty Polly,
Get down, get down," says he,

"For I've drowned six kings' daughters
And you the seventh will be.

7. "You pull off them fine gold clothings,
And hang them on yonders tree;

For I say they are too rich and costly
For to rot in this old sea."

8. "You turn your face towards the green tree;
Your back you turn to me;

For I say a naked maid
Ain't fitten for a man to see."

9. He turned hisself all around and about,
His back he turned to me;

She picked him up in her arms so manful
And throwed him into the sea.

10. "Give me your hand, my pretty Polly,
Give me your hand," said he,
"And the very next time I make you a promise,
I'll double it with three."

Ballads and Songs

11. "Lie there, lie there, you false lying villian,
Lie there instead of me;

For you have drowned six kings' daughters
And you the seventh shall be."

12. She mounted on the Turkish brown
And led the dapple grey;

She rode till she come to her father's home,
One long hour till day.

13. Up spoke her little parrot
A -setting in his cage:

"What is the matter, my pretty Polly ?
What made you stay so long from me ?"

14. "Hold your tongue, my pretty little parrot,
And tell no tale on me,

And your cage shall be lined with the yellow beaten gold,
And your door of ivory."

1 5. Up spoke her old father,
Oh, he spoke desperately :

"What's the matter, my pretty little parrot ?
What makes you talk so long from day ?"

1 6. "Nothing but an old stray cat
A -trying to catch me,

And I was calling to Pretty Polly
For to drive the cat away."

"Pretty Polly." The song was recorded near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee,
by Glada Gully, a student in Lincoln Memorial University Harrogate,
Tennessee.

i. When Polly gets sleepy, she hangs down her head,

And calls for a candle to light her to bed.
He followed her up, he followed her down;

He followed her to the room where she lay.

Lady Isabel and the Elf -Knight

"You take part of your father's gold,

Which lies at your mother's feet,
Two best horses from your father's stable

Wherein stand thirty and three."

2. She took part of her father's gold,

Which lay at her mother's feet,
Two best horses from her father's stable,

Wherein stood thirty and three.
She rode and rode until she came

To the salt water sea.
"Get down, get down, pretty Polly;

I have some tale for thee,
I have drowned six of the king's daughters,

And the seventh you shall be."

3. "Young man, young man, is that what you promised me?

You promised to take me to the great gold land,,
And there for to marry me."

"Take off that fine silk robe,
And lay it on yonder rock

For it is too costly and fine
For the sand of the sea to rot."

4. "Turn your back to the greenwood side,

Your face to the salt water sea;
Ain't it a pity that such pebbles as you

A naked woman should see ?"
He turned his back to the greenwood side,

His face to the salt water sea ;
She picked him up so manfully

And hove him into the sea.

5. "Give me your hand, pretty Polly,

Give me your hand," he cried,
"And everything I promised you,

I'll make it come abide."
"Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted wretch!

Lie there in the place of me;
You've drowned six of the king's daughters,

And king over them you shall be!"

Ballads and Songs

6. She mounted then the milk-white steed,

And led the drossly gray.
She rode it home at her father's house,

One long hour before day.
Up cried, up cried, the pretty little parrot,

Wherein his cage he stay:
"What's the matter, what's the matter, pretty Polly ?

What makes you ride so long before day ?"
"Hold your tongue, my pretty little parrot,

Tell no tales on me.
Your cage will be made of yellow beaded gold

And shall hang in a willow tree."

7. Up cried, up cried, the old lord of all

In his bed-room there where he lay.
"What's the matter, what's the matter, pretty Polly ?

What makes you quack so long before day ?"
"There come three cats to my cage door,

And threatened to weary me,
And I had to call pretty Polly

To chase them cats away."

EARL BRAND

(Child, No. 7)

See Barry, Modern Language Notes, Vol. XXV, No. 4; Barry -Eckstorm-
Smyth, p. 35 (two versions); Campbell and Sharp, No. 3 (four versions);
Cox, No. 2 ; Davis, No. 4 (four versions with a "modern piece" as an appen-
dix); Hudson, No. 2; Mackenzie, Quest, p. 60; Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 2;
Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Journal, XXVIII, 152 (Perrow);
XXVIII, 200 (Reed Smith); XLII, 256 (Henry, the same text). For addi-
tional references, see Cox, No. 2. Professor and Mrs. I. G. Greer, of Boone,
N. C., have registered the song with dulcimer accompaniament under the
title, "Sweet William and Fair Ellen," on Paramount Record, 3236A and
32366. Add Brown, p. 9.

"Lord Loving." From the singing of Mrs. Samuel Harmon, Cade's Cove,
Blount County, Tennessee, who learned it from Grandfather Harmon in
Watauga County, North Carolina. Recorded by Mrs. Henry.

Earl Brand

,-c-f u j' j' *===

zgzrg-fi-JL-p^l J. JJ r JT

1. "Hold my horse, little Marget," he said,
"Hold him with your hand,

Till I go and fight your seven brothers bold
In the meadow where they stand."

2. She stood and she stood
And she never shed a tear,

Till she seed her seven brothers bold fall
And her father who loved her so dear.

3. She pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket;
Was of the Holland so fine;

She tuk and wiped her brother's bloody wounds
Until the blood run as red as the wine.

4. "Choose you now, little Marget," he says,
"Go along with me abide."

"I must go, Lord Loving," she said,
"Lord, you've left me nary a guide."

5 . He mounted himself on a Turkish brown,
And she on the dapple grey;

And he blowed his bugle both loud and shrill,
And he bled as he rode away.

6. He rode by the light of the bright shining moon
Till he come to his mother's barried [= barred] door:
"Open the door, dear mother," he says,

"Little Marget, she is won.

7. "Make me a bed, dear mother," he says,
"Make it wide and deep,

Lay little Marget in my arms
That the sounder I may sleep."

8. Lord Loving died before midnight
And she along 'fore day;

And if that be the way of all true lovers,

Who run away together,

God send them more pleasure than they.

Ballads and Song*

THE TWA SISTERS

(Child, No. 10 )

Campbell and Sharp (No. 4) quote four versions, one from North Carolina
and three from Virginia. Pound (No. 4) gives the N. C. version from Camp-
bell and Sharp and a Missouri version imported from Kentucky from
H. M. Belden's "Old Country Ballads in Missouri/' Journal of American
Folk-Lore, XIX, p. 233. See also Sharp, Folk- Songs of English Origin,
2nd series, pp. 18 21 ; Cox, No. 3 ; Gray, p. 75 ; Hudson, No. 3 ; Kittredge,
Journal, XXX, 286; Cox, The School Journal and Educator (West Virginia),
1916, XLIV, 428, 441 442; Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, No. 5
(eleven versions) ; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Pound, Syllabus, p. u; Barry -
Eckstorm-Smyth, British Ballads from Maine, p. 40; Belden, No. 2; Barry,
No. 3 ; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9, 1927. Add Barry,
Journal, XVIII, 130 132 (two texts: A. with air, B reprinted in Barry-Eck-
storm- Smyth, 40 41); Sharp, MSS., Harvard University Library: several
texts with airs, collected in the Southern Highlands; Thomas, p. 70; Journal,
XLII, 238; XLIV, 295; Brown, p. 9; PTFLS, No. 10, pp. 141 143.

The text A with the exception of a few verbal differences is close to that
in James Watt Raine's The ] ^and of the Saddle Bags, Richmond, 1924, p. 118,
which is the same as that of Richardson and Spaeth's American Mountain
Songs, New York, 1 927, p. 27, though no mention is there made of the source.
Professor Raine says of this ballad (p. 117): "Many of the ballads have a refrain
in which all the auditors may join. Sometimes the refrain has no connection
with the story, as in the short lines of 'The Twa Sisters'. c Bowee Down!'
and 'Bow and balance to me !' are a remnant from an old dance jingle, which
was occasionally sung by dancers even after the music was furnished by the
fiddle. 'Bowee' was originally *Bow ye' but it has dropped the 'y' and
become 'bowee', as is common in Scottish familiar speech. The triple
repetition of the first line in every stanza is a frequent characteristic oi
ballads, it gives intensity to the tale." C on the authority of Child is
more nearly complete in its theme than A and B of this group. He says :
"According to all complete and uncorrupted forms of the ballad, either some
part of the body of the drowned girl is taken to furnish a musical instrument,
a harp or a viol, or the instrument is wholly made from the body" (English
and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by Helen Child Sargent and George
Lyman Kittredge, Cambridge, 1904, p. 18).

The Two Sisters

Recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Miss Cora Clark, Crossnore,
Avery County, North Carolina, July 12, 1929.

J.| p p EC c FT F

1 . There lived an old lord by the Northern Sea,

Bow'e down!
There lived an old lord by the Northern Sea,

Bow and balance to me!
There lived an old lord by the Northern Sea
And he had daughters, one, two, three.

I'll be true to my love,

If my love will be true to me.

2. A young man came a-courtin' there,

Bow'e down!
A young man came a-courtin' there,

Bow and balance to me!
A young man came a-courtin' there
And fell in love with the youngest fair.

I'll be true to my love,

If my love will be true to me.

$. He bought the youngest a beaver hat,

Bow'e down!
He bought the youngest a beaver hat,

Bow and balance to me !
He bought the youngest a beaver hat;
The oldest sister didn't like that.

I'll be true to my love,

If my love will be true to me.

Ballads and Songs

4. The sisters walked down to the river brim,

Bow'e down!
The sisters walked down to the river brim,

Bow and balance to me!
The sisters walked down to the river brim;
The oldest pushed the youngest in.

I'll be true to my love,

If my love will be true to me.

5. Sister, O sister, lend me your hand,

Bow'e down!

Sister, O sister, lend me your hand,

Bow and balance to me!

Sister, O sister, lend me your hand;

I'll give to you my house and land.
I'll be true to my love,
If my love will be true to me.

6. She floated down to the miller's dam,

Bow'e down!

She floated down to the miller's dam,
Bow and balance to me!

She floated down to the miller's dam;

The miller pulled her safe to land.
I'll be true to my love,
If my love will be true to me.

7. From off her finger he took five gold rings,

Bow'e down!
From off her finger he took five gold rings,

Bow and balance to me!
From off her finger he took five gold rings
And then he threw her back in.

I'll be true to my love,

If my love will be true to me.

8. They hanged the miller on a gallows so high,

Bow'e down!
They hanged the miller on a gallows so high,

Bow and balance to me !
They hanged the miller on a gallows so high,
The oldest sister standing close by.

I'll be true to my love,

If my love will be true to me.

Mrs. Samuel Harmon When She Came to

Sing for Us at Our Camp in the Great

Smokies

The Twa Sisters

"The Two Sisters." Recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Mrs.
Samuel Harmon, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, August 13, 1930.

i r r r r i r r H r F=H r r r i r f r r i
r r r i r r-

rir-p-r fir

1. Two little sisters loved one man,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

Two little sisters loved one man,

The boys are bound for me.

Two little sisters loved one man;

Johnny loved the youngest the little the best,

Says I'll be kind to my true-love,

If she'll be kind to me.

2. Johnny bought the youngest a beaver hat,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

Johnny bought the youngest a beaver hat;

The boys are bound for me.

Johnny bought the youngest a beaver hat;

The oldest one thought hard of that,

Says I'll be kind to my true-love,

If she'll be kind to me.

3. Johnny bought the youngest a gay, gold ring,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

Johnny bought the youngest a gay, gold ring;

The boys are bound for me.

Johnny bought the youngest a gay, gold ring

And never bought the oldest a single thing,

Says I'll be kind to my true-love,

If she'll be kind to me.

Ballads and Songs

4. Two little sisters going down the stream,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

Two little sisters going down the stream;

The boys are bound for me.

Two little sisters going down the stream ;

The oldest pushed the youngest in,

Says I'll be kind to my true-love,

If she'll be kind to me.

5. "Sister Martha, give me your hand,"
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

"Sister Martha, give me your hand;"
The boys are bound for me.
"Sister Martha, give me your hand;
You may have my house and land,"
Says I'll be kind to my true-love,
If she'll be kind to me.

6. "Sister Martha, give me your glove,"
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

"Sister Martha, give me your glove;"
The boys are bound for me.
"Sister Martha, give me your glove
And you may have my own true-love,"
Says I'll be kind to my true-love,
If she'll be kind to me.

7. "I'll neither give you my hand nor glove,"
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

"I'll neither give you my hand nor glove;"

The boys are bound for me.

"I'll neither give you my hand nor glove,

But I will have your house and love,"

Says I'll be kind to my true-love,

If she'll be kind to me.

8. She floated down in the miller's dam,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;

She floated down in the miller's dam ;
The boys are bound for me.
She floated down in the miller's dam;
The miller drawed her safe to land,
Says I'll be kind to my true-love,
If she'll be kind to me.

The Twa Sisters

9. The miller robbed her of her gold,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;
The miller robbed her of her gold;
The boys are bound for me.
The miller robbed her of her gold
But he plunged her into a deeper hole,
Says I'll be kind to my true-love,
If she'll be kind to me.

10. The miller was hung on a gallows so high,
Sing I dum, sing I dey;
The miller was hung on a gallows so high ;
The boys are bound for me.
The miller was hung on a gallows so high;
Sister Martha burnt close by,
Says I'll be kind to my true-love,
If she'll be kind to me.

"The Two Sisters." Also recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of
Mrs. Samuel Harmon, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, August 13,
1930.

1. Was two sisters loved one man,
Jelly flower jan;