Mustering Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The station owner gathers the crew for mustering day. The workers head out to gather the herd when the old man is thrown into a tree and dies. The next day, the singer sees the man's ghost in his usual place, smoking his usual clay (pipe)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: ghost death horse boss Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 158-159, "The Mustering Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 80-81, "Mustering Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 226-227, "The Mustering Song" (1 text)
Roud #27771
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)" (tune & meter)
NOTES [77 words]: The description is based on Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia. The version in Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong has no mention of the old man with the pipe; it's just a list of problems encountered by herdsmen. The first verses are close enough to show that the two are derived from the same original, so I list them together here. But one is clearly a rewrite of the other. My strong suspicion is that the Fahey text is the rewrite; it has much more plot. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FaE158

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