Wind Is in the West, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the wind is in the west, And the guinea's on her nest, And I can't get any rest For my baby! I'll tell pap when he comes home Somebody beat my little baby!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby abuse baby
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 157 (partly repeated on p. 160), (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bookerman" (theme)
NOTES [102 words]: There is a fairly well-known weather rhyme:
When the wind is in the north,
The skillful fisher goes not forth;
When the wind is in the east,
'Tis good for neither man nor beast [etc.].
This poem is quoted in MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 66. It's not this, but I can imagine some common influence. The source of the rhyme is unclear; web sources cite the Old Farmer's Almanac and Izaak Walton, among others. The latter attribution is, I think, wrong; Walton wrote a somewhat similar poem, but not this exact piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: ScNF157A

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