Lyric Add: HYAH, RATTLER!
(from Curtis-Burlin, 1919)

A rattler went daown dat holler lawg,
Hyah! Rattler! Hyah!
Ma dawg, --Rattler!
Ma dawg, --Rattler!
Hyah! Rattler! Hyah!

As I was runnin' 'cross de fiel',
A rattlesnake bit me on de heel,
Hyah! Rattler! Hyah!
Ow! Ow!* -- Hyah! Rattler!
Ow! Ow! -- Hyah! Rattler!
Hyah! Rattler! Hyah!

* imitating the bark of a dog.
With score. Collected at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Virginia.
Natalie Curtis-Burlin, 1918-1919, "Negro Folk-Songs." The Hampton Series, Books I-IV. G. Schirmer, Inc., New York.
These extremely rare little books have been reprinted by Dover Publications, 2001; new pagination, Hyah, Rattler! p. 155, score p. 157.

This short version, the first collected, is a far cry from the extended version sung by Moses (Clear Rock) Platt and fellow inmates at the Texas State Prison Farms; also quite different from the version by Grandpa Jones with its borrowings of lines and verses from other songs.