Little Sally Walker

DESCRIPTION: "Little Sally Walker, sitting in (a saucer), Cryin' (for the old man to come for the dollar), (Ride, Sally, Ride). (Fly) to the east, (fly) to the west, (Fly) to the one that you love best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NW,SE,So) Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber),Wales) West Indies(Jamaica,Tobago) New Zealand
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1585, "Three Little Sand Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune); 1586, "Rise, Sally Walker" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, "Sally Walker" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48g, p. 11, "Old Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 11, "Little Sally Ann" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 86-88=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 210-211, "Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune plus a portion of another)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 86-87, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 31-132, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 109, "Little Sally Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 24-25, "Rise, Sugar, Rise or Little Sallie Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 143, pp. 209-291, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 147, "Little Sally Waters" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 157, "(Little Sally Walker)" (1 text); p. 278, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 50-51, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 222-223, "Little Sallie Saucer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #125, "Little Sally Walker" (1 fragment)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 34, "Sally Water" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #13, "Little Sally Waters" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 26-27, "Little Sally Walker (Waters)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 529-530, "Little Sally Waters" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 25, "Little Sally Waters" (1 text)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 89, "Sally Water"; 90, ("Poor little Zeddy they put him in the corner") (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 14, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 24-25, "(Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 392, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games," Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927), #9 pp. 12-13 ("Little Sally Walker") (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #319, "Little Sally Water" (1 text)
DT, LTLSALLY; also SALWALKER (a collection of several songs with this title, some of which belong here)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, "Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales" (London, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 133, ("Sally, Sally Waters, why are you so sad?") (1 text)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 92, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 534-535, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 66, "Little Sally Water"; pp. 66-67, "Poor little Zeddy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #66 pp. 78-79, "Little Sally Water" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 59, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Roud #4509
RECORDINGS:
Mattie Gardner, Ida Mae Towns & Jessie Lee Pratcher, "Little Sally Walker" (on LomaxCD1703)
Vera Hall, "Little Sally Walker" (AFS 1323 B1, 1937)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Little Sally Walker" (on NFMAla1)
Pete Seeger, "Little Sally Walker" (on PeteSeeger21)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping)" (lyrics)
cf. "Silly Old Man" (some lines)
NOTES [81 words]: In England, if the collections in Gomme are to be believed, this is about equally known as "Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping" and "Little Sally Walker/Waters." The latter name seems to dominate in the U. S., and so has been used on the basis of plurality.
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #644, p. 256, begins "Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan" and ends "Choose for the prettiest that you like best." This certainly sounds related, but on its face it doesn't appear the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CNFM157

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