Subject: RE: Wild Boar: History, Lyrics & Discussion-Child #18
From:
Lighter
Date: 31 Jul 20 - 09:35 PM
The Sun (N.Y.C.) (Dec. 27, 1915), p. 6:
"At the request of my friend, Judge Archbald [sic], I am sending you the complete story of 'Old Bangum,' as I used to sing it to him and other classmates of Yale '71. It is as sung to me by my father when I was a child, say some sixty years ago.
"I regret that I did not have intelligence enough to find out whatever my father may have known about its derivation. He was Kentucky born, but had traveled much in the West. The refrains give an idea of old English combined with Choctaw....
"[Signed] Lyne Starling,
GREENVILLE, Miss., December 22.
Old Bangum rode down by the riverside,
Dallum down Dallum;
Old Bangum rode down by the riverside,
Kimme koo;
Old Bangum rode down by the riverside,
And there a beauteous maid he spied,
Dallum down, Kimmee koo Quam.
[Similarly:]
My pretty maid, will you marry me?...
Yes, kind sir, if we agree....
But there is a wild boar in this wood,...
Will eat your heart and drink your blood....
Old Bangum rode down by the wild boar's den,...
And there lay the bones of a thousand men....
The wild boar came forth very wroth,...
Bending his course from south to north....
Old Bangum drew his butcher knife...
To fight the wild boar for his life....
They fought the hours of that day,...
And at last the wild boar ran away....
Then Bangum rode down to the riverside,...
And took the fair maid for his bride....
(The part about "Choctaw" is undoubtedly a joke. The word was often used to mean "gibberish.")
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