The Digital Tradition lyrics are a good transcription of the Baez recording:
DANGER WATERS
And I holler why, and I holler why And I holler why, the tortoise boy no mon ami
First he give me one, then he give me two And he give me three and I holler "Lord have mercy"
First we go in a room, make me mama no know Make me lie on a sofa, make me have-a me labor
Give me back me shillin', give me back me shillin' You can stand on your own feet now, give me back me shillin'
Hold me tight, hold me tight, danger waters coming baby hold me tight hold me tight, hold me tight, danger water coming, baby, hold me
@love @courtship @baby @sex @African recorded by Joan Baez filename[ DANGWATR TUNE FILE: DANGWATR CLICK TO PLAY SOF
Phil pointed out a recording by the Yoruba Singers. Does the song appear in songbooks or in other recordings? I didn't find it in Roud or in the Traditional Ballad Index.
The song is on pp 156-157 of my copy of The Joan Baez Songbook, published in 1964 by Ryerson Music Publishers, a division of Vanguard Records. Here are the notes:
This song is typical of the exciting "Highlife" music heard in the cafes of Ghana. It shows the influence of American jazz and Latin American rhythms on West African native musics, indicating a direction in musical diffusion which ethnomusicologists are first beginning to notice after years of studying in the reverse direction, from Africa to America. Its poetry, too, is worthy of notice for it exhibits a fluidity of words and metaphors based on ordinary speech patterns which strike home directly, if sometimes savagely. (also quoted above by WyoWoman, who was last seen in Seattle).
Notice that in the link Phil gave, the boy is a "Yoruba boy," not a "tortoise boy." the Yoruba people are in Nigeria and Benin. -Joe-