Hares on the Mountain
RA, Spanish 1965
Hush little baby, don't you cry
You know your mama was born to die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over
All my trials, soon be over
The river Jordan is muddy and wide
There's milk and honey, on the other side.
There grows a tree in Paradise
The pilgrims call it the tree of life
If livin were a thing that money could buy
Well the rich would live, and the poor would die
Hush little baby, don't you cry
You know your mama was born to die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over
All my trials, soon be over
If all the young girls were hares on the mountain
Young men would take guns and they'd go out a huntin
Sing whack fol-di-diddle ido sing whack fol diday
If the girls were all trout and salmon so lively
Then devil a man would eat meat on a Friday
If all the young girls were blackbirds and thrushes
Young men would take sticks and they's beat in the bushes
If all the young girls were fowls of the air
Young men would take rifles and cock them and fire
But I fear that young men are like dew on the corn
In the night they are with you come the morning they're gone
From The Galliards. The sort of thing they would sing - it is bawdy in a folksy sort of way.
About
One of my early recordings.
There is a version where the girls do the hunting - but quite honestly, political correctness can go too far. The imagery tells me that the men are doing the chasing. Guns in the first verse; tickling trout; the birds singing in the second verse could be a male or female reference to what this song is all about - but if you take out sticks and start beating in bushes or cuckoo's nests, then you know what it's about. And as for rifles being cocked (nudge nudge, know what I mean) well it is even less subtle than the others.
I will admit that the last verse (perhaps an addition?) is very like a standard verse from something beginning "Come all you fair and tender maids" - or "On top of Old Smoky".