I haven't figured out where the version in the Digital Tradition comes from. Can anybody identify it? It's taken directly from the first message in this thread, which says only "Arr. by Albert Gamse." Can anybody identify it further?
Note that we also have Charlie Poole's I'm the man who rode the mule around the world.

Here's the version from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag (1927)

I WAS BORN ALMOST TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO

I was born almost ten thousand years ago,
And there's nothing in the world that I don't know;
I saw Peter, Paul and Moses,
Playing ring-around-the-roses
And I'm here to lick the guy what says 'taint so.

I saw Satan when he looked the garden o'er,
Saw Adam and Eve driven from the door,
And behind the bushes peeping,
Saw the apple they were eating,
And I'll swear that I'm the guy what ate the core.

I saw Jonah when he embarked within the whale,
And thought he'd never live to tell the tale.
But old Jonah had eaten garlic
And he gave the whale a colic,
So he coughed up and let him out o' jail.

I saw Samson when he laid the village cold,
Saw Daniel tame the lions in the hold,
And helped build the Tower of Babel,
Up as high as they were able,
And there's lots of other things I haven't told.

I taught Solomon his little A-B-C's,
I helped Brigham Young to make Limburger cheese,
And while sailing down the bay With Methusaleh one day,
I saved his flowing whiskers from the breeze.

Queen Elizabeth she fell in love with me
We were married in Milwaukee secretly,
But I schemed around and shook her,
And I went with General Hooker
To shoot mosquitoes down in Tennessee.

I remember when the country had a king,
I saw Cleopatra pawn her wedding ring,
And I saw the flags a-flying
When George Washington stopped lying,
On the night when Patti first began to sing.

---

As usual, Sandburg's notes don't say much. I wonder who Patti is - CleoPatti??

-Joe Offer-