Lost Babe, The

DESCRIPTION: A child wanders away from its mother (or is sent to take its father his dinner) and is lost. Men of the community (or Egypt and foreign lands) search; the child is dead, and buzzards are picking out its eyes. The mother cries, "Lord, have mercy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: grief corpse death bird children mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 129, "The Lost Babe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Paul Robertson, "Ballads & Bytes: The Digitally Reproduced Folksong Collections of Dr. I. G. Greer and Dr. W. Amos Abrams" Vol. LV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2008), pp. 62-63, "The Lost Child" (1 fragment)
Roud #3636
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" (plot)
cf. "Three Lost Babes of Americay" (plot)
cf. "Penitent" (tune of Sharp's B version)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)" (theme)
cf. "All the Pretty Little Horses" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: ShAp2129

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