Hares on the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: The singer avers that if young women ran like hares on the mountain, if he was a young man he'd go hunting. Likewise if they sang like birds in the bushes he'd beat the bushes, etc. ad (possible) nauseum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Samuel Lover's novel _Rory O'More_ . See NOTES)
KEYWORDS: sex lyric nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Bronson (44), "The Twa Magicians" -- the appendix includes 11 versions (#2-#12) which are this song
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (44), "The Twa Magicians" (3 versions, of which #2 and #12 are this song)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 38, "Hares on the Mountains" (4 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 63, "Hares on the Mountains" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 55, "Hares on the Mountain"; 64, "Sally My Dear" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 224, "If Pretty Maids Could Sing" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 357)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #28, "Hares on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 63, "Hares on the Mountains"; 64, "O Sally, My Dear" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #12}
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 169, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 50, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 173, "Sally My Dear" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), pp. 143+147, "To My Right Folly Diddle Dero" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 5, "O Sally, My Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HARESMTN* SALLYDR*
ADDITIONAL: Samuel Lover, Rory O'More (London, 1839 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 109-110, ("Oh! if all the young maidens was blackbirds and thrishes [sic]") (1 text)
Roud #329
RECORDINGS:
Dickie Lashbrook, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (on FSB2CD)
Pete Seeger, "Sally My Dear" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01) (on PeteSeeger14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Your Leg Over" (form, theme)
cf. "Creeping and Crawling" (tune)
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44]
NOTES [109 words]: It has been theorized that this song descends from "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44] (so, for instance, Bronson, who prints this piece as an appendix to that ballad). Frankly, I don't see it. More likely is the connection with "Creeping and Crawling (The Knife in the Window)," with which it shares a tune. But even they have separate plots. - RBW
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Sometimes attributed to Samuel Lover (1797-1865) as he printed it in his novel Rory O More, but is probably an older ballad rewritten. He was a versatile genius, poet, artist, novelist, folk-lorist and antiquarian." See my speculation on Lover for "Widow Machree (II)." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ShH63

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