The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77985 Message #1736828
Posted By: Goose Gander
09-May-06 - 11:44 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/Add: Haunted Falls / Haunted Wood
Subject: RE: Req/Add: Haunted Falls / Haunted Wood
A site called The Heritage of Daniel Haston includes a version which, according to the brief notes, was collected in 1923.
The Haunted Falls
Once in olden times a river
Ran between two mountain walls,
And the place from first it started
formed a place called "Haunted Falls."
On its banks there lived a white man
With his wife and children three.
And for many years the forest
Echoed back its shouts of glee.
One bright day their own dear father
To the little town had gone,
Left his wife and little children
For a quiet hour alone.
Hark! the trampling sounds of horses
And the woman turned in fright,
Just in time to draw the door bolt
As three Indians rode in sight.
Then she turned and kissed her children;
Bade them not to speak or cry,
Cast them in a secret closet
And inveiled herself to die.
With an angry push the chieftain
Broke the bolt from off the door.
There he saw the weeping woman,
Lying there upon the floor.
Then he shouted to his comrades
As he seized a heavy stick.
Come, we'll drown the weeping woman.
Lose no time I say be quick.
Then he caught her by her dresses
And he dragged her to the floor;
Caught her by her long brown tresses
And he dragged her to the shore.
There they danced and sang around her;
Heeding not her pitious cries.
Dashed her on the rocks below them
And in agony she died.
'Twas revenge that they had wanted.
'Twas revenge that they had found.
So they burned the sleeping babies
And the dwelling to the ground.
Now the old man wanders lonely
Around the place the dwelling stood
And the people of the villages
Call the place the "Haunted Woods."
Haunted Falls