A comical ditty I will sing ye now Concerning a poor man who had but one cow Each day he bring her from the fields to be fed But arriving one morning he found Drimmendoo dead (refrain) And it's oh-ro Drimmendoo Oh-rah-hwan Drimmendoo Deelish-go-gee-to-schlan.
Bad luck to you, Drimmendoo, what made you die? 'Twas not for the want of good corn or hay Yes, corn and hay and enough of it, too For it's abba-boo hwilla-loo, what'll I do? (refrain)
'Twas yesterday's morning, Friday last When I milked me old Drimmendoo on the green grass And so white was her milk and so slick her tail That I thought old Drimmendoo never would fail (refrain)
Bad luck to the priest and the friar also They promised to keep me from sorrow and woe And when they found out that I was in distress For regards of one shillin', poor Drimmendoo lost Mass (refrain)
'Tis now I must sit down and ate a dry mail For I have no more butter to butter me kale And, oh, no more strippin's to sop me bread For it's abba-boo hwilla-loo, Drimmendoo's dead (refrain)
Sung by Fred Smith, Bentonville, Arkansas, October 16, 1955, collected by Mary Celestia Parler.
Source: Mary Celestia Parler, An Arkansas Ballet Book (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 1963), p.15
Fred Smith recorded the song for Max Hunter a few years later . . . . Drimmendoo
Bruce Olson provided the following notes on his website . . . .
"Drimmendo" / "An Druimfhionn dubh"
Druimionn Dubh/ Drimen Duff; BTH1 38, Irish |1028|: Drimen Duff; CPC8 12 |1249|,|1028|: [Song- Hughie Graham]; SMM #303 |2317|, |1028|: Drimindoo; AA6 97 |2761|,|1028|: Drimen Duff; THM 35 |2820|=|1028|: Drimindoo; CIA 6 |3201|=|2761| = HNS 4 |4409|=|3201|: Drimen Duff; OFNIM 20 |3884|=|1028|: Driminduh; MSI 31 |4322|=|2761|: Oh! Farewell Dear Erin, or Drimenduath [earliest text of Druimion Dubh]; OHM 13 |4379|,|1028|: Drimendoo; HOIT1 21 |4519|,|1028|: Drimendoo; HPB1 34 |5213|= |2761|: Dear Black Cow; EB3 #42 |5941|,|1028|: [Tune called for as 'Oroo Dremendoo' #10, in Dublin ballad opera by Henry Brooke, Jack the Gyant Queller, 1749. Some song of this title sung in English and Irish by Robert Owenson in Dublin concert, 1778. Song is well known in printed form from early 19th century and recent American (US and Canada) tradition, but I have found no 18th century copy. Owenson's daughter used the tune for a song of her own and this was reissued as one of the earliest known sheet songs with music in the US. Copy now in Levy Collection, Johns Hopkins Univ. (now on web)]
And the song was apparently mentioned in an eighteenth century British novel . . . .
"The Indians themselves allowed that Murphy died with great heroism, singing, as his death song, the Drimmendoo, in concert with Mr Lismahago, who was present at the solemnity. After the warriors and the matrons had made a hearty meal upon the muscular flesh which they pared from the victim, and had applied a great variety of tortures, which he bore without flinching, an old lady, with a sharp knife, scooped out one of his eyes, and put a burning coal in the socket. The pain of this operation was so exquisite that he could not help bellowing, upon which the audience raised a shout of exultation, and one of the warriors stealing behind him, gave him the coup de grace with a hatchet."
From Tobias Smollet The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771)