John Middleton of Leith, a sailor who first shipped 1879, sang this for collector J.M. Carpenter in the late 1920s.

There is an audio recording of Middleton singing. Two verses, but it sounds like more or less the same verse repeated.

Carpenter noted the first (solo) line as "O the people in da Souf dey've all got tails."

Due to the dialect spelling, I suppose Carpenter may have wanted to convey it was an African-American song. However, on the recording I don't feel Middleton is singing with such a dialect pronunciation.

The verse sung by Middleton is ~~something like~~:

Oh the people in the South, they've all got tails. [final pitches mi - do]
    Mind how you swing your tail [final pitch re]
Swing your tail when the wind blows free (/with a 1, 2, 3) [final pitches la sol sol]
    Mind how you swing your tail [final pitches re re do]

[The indents are my own, and they presume choral refrains.]