Hi,

TY Steve,

Child No. 1, Riddles Wisely Expounded (Roud No. 161). There is apparently only one US version in the Carpenter Collection and it's from the US as collected in 1941 and titled, "Riddles Wisely Expounded." The local titles include "Sing Ninety-Nine and Ninety" or "The Devil's Nine Questions."

From the James Carpenter Collection, Reference Code AFC 1972/001, MS p. 07630, titled Riddles Wisely Expounded. According to reports from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph newspaper, Mary Davis Adair and the informant Mrs P. O. Ivery were in Bluefield, W. Va. in the years preceding 1941 (until the late 1930s). In 1941 when the MS was collected they were in Narrows, Va. This version from the Carpenter Collection is nearly identical to the Kyle Arthur Davis Jr. version in Traditional Ballads of Virginia, published in 1929 and it could easily have been copied from the 1929 book. Since it was sent in, not transcribed, and no information has been provided to corroborate its legitimacy, it's impossible to determine whether it is, in fact, traditional. Personally, I think it's a copy-- only one word has been changed from the verses published in 1929-- the word "me" replaces "my" in the first line. The title alone indicates that this was not a local version.

"Riddles Wisely Expounded" sent in by Mrs P.O. Ivery of Bluefield, WV in the 1930s and Narrows, VA, by June 1941 when the MS was sent in.

If you don't answer me questions nine
Sing ninety-nine and ninety,
I'll take you off to hell, alive,
And you are the weaver's bonny.

What is whiter than milk?
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
What is softer than silk?
Say you're the weaver's bonny."

Snow is whiter than milk,
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
Down is softer than silk,
And I'm the weaver's bonny."

What is louder than a horn?
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
What is sharper than a thorn?
Sing I am the weaver's bonny.

Thunder's louder than a horn,
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
Death is sharper than a thorn,
Sing I'm the weaver's bonny.

What is higher than a tree?
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
What is deeper than the sea?
Sing I'm the weaver's bonny.

Heaven's higher than a tree,
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
And hell is deeper than the sea,
Sing I'm the weaver's bonny.

What is innocenter than a lamb?
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
What is worse than woman-kind?
Say I'm the weaver's bonny.

A babe is innocenter than a lamb,
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
She-devil's worse than woman-kind,
Sing I'm the weaver's bonny."

You have answered me questions nine,
Sing ninety-nine and ninety;
You are God's-- you're not my own,
And you're the weaver's bonny."

* * * *

Richie