Martin, here goes with the words:-

THE BANKS OF THE NILE (Key G#)

Hark the drums are beating and no longer I can stay.
I hear the bugle sounding and that call I must obey.
We're ordered down to Portsmouth for the many a long mile,
To join the British Army on the banks of the Nile.

Oh Johnnie, dearest Johnnie, don't leave me here to mourn,
For I will curse and rue the day that ever I was born.
For the parting of you, my love, is the parting of my life,
I'll go with you, dear Johnnie, and I will be your wife.

Oh Nancy, lovely Nancy, that's a thing that can't be so,
Our colonel he gave orders that no woman there should go.
We must forasake our own sweethearts, likewise our native soil
To fight the German soldiers on the banks of the Nile.

Then I'll cut off my yellow locks and go along with you,
I'll dress myself in man's attire and see the captain too.
I'll fight and strike the banner high and (pass under?) and will smile, (while fortune does on me smile)
And we'll comfort one another on the banks of the Nile.

Ah, your waist it is too slender love, and your figure is too small,
I'm afraid you would not answer me when on you I would call.
Your delicate constitution could not bear that unwholesome clime,
And the hot and sandy deserts on the banks of the Nile.

My curse attend the war, and the hour it first began,
It has robbed the poor old Ireland of many a gallant man.
They took from me my own sweetheart, the protection of our soil,
And the ................. on the banks of the Nile. (blood spilled through the grass it seeps on)

And when the war is over it's home we will return,
To our wives and sweethearts we left behind to mourn,
We will embrace into their arms until the end of time,
And we'll go no more to battle on the banks of the Nile.

This is how I hear, or mis-hear it. The additions are from Dolores Keane's version of the song as sung on the CD Night Owl (1997 Grapevine GRACD 238) where she credits her version to Tom Phaidin Tom. Other recorded versions can be heard from: The Young Tradition - Martin Carthy - Cyril Tawney - Roy Harris - Ewan MacColl and Niamh Parsons. A good traditional version is sung by Dan McGonigle on the Inishowen Traditional Singing Circle cassette produced several years ago by Jimmy McBride. Regards.