The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #83749 Message #1544180
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
17-Aug-05 - 02:12 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Little Sally Walker Other versions
Subject: RE: Origins: Little Sally Walker Other versions
William Wells Newell, "Games and Songs of American Children," lists "Little Sally Waters" as no. 13 in his book, first pub. in 1883 and reprinted in 1903 (Dover reprint 1963, p. 70). He doesn't say where he collected it, but notes that in north England, her name was Walker (Gomme shows clearly that 'Waters' was most common in the British Isles). Walker collected mainly from people's memories; the rhyme he cites may have been from a childhood in the British Isles and not from America.
His verse:
Little Sally Waters Sitting in the sun, Crying and weeping for a young man. Rise, Sally, rise. Dry your weeping eyes, Fly to the East, Fly to the West, Fly to the one you love best.