Emigrant from Pike.
[AIR—Nelly was a Lady.]

I have just arrived across the Plains,
Oh, didn't I have awful times!
It makes the blood run greasy through my veins,
I'm so disappointed in the mines.

First Chorus:
[AIR—Dan Tucker.]
When I go home with an empty sack,
I'll show them where the Indians shot me in the back,
And how my mules laid down and died,
And I near starved to death beside.

Second Chorus:
[AIR—King of the Cannibal Islands.]
Hokey, pokey, winker wun,
We're all good fellows, we'll have some fun,
And all get married when we go home,
So what's the use of talking.

I was taken with the bilious cholera,
While I was traveling up the Platte;
All my friends they ran away and left me,
Then, to die contented, down I sat—

First Chorus:
Cramping, twisting, down I sat,
My inwards all tied up in a knot;
My old mule he began to bray,
I, scared to death, began to pray.
Hokey, pokey, winker wun,
We're all good fellows, we'll have some fun, etc.

When I reached the desert, I was starvin'
Surely thought I'd never get across;
Then I thought of my big brother, Marvin,
Then the bacon and the mule I'd lost.

First Chorus:
The times to reach the mines were past,
And I, poor d—l, was about the last;
And when I thought of my big brother,
I bid farewell to my kind old mother.
Hokey, pokey, winker wun,
We're all good fellows, we'll have some fun, etc.

I got through at last, and went to mining,
Stole myself a shovel and pick,
But could not raise the color big and shining,
Swore I'd never strike another lick.
First Chorus:
Then I went round among my friends
To see if I could raise some tens
To take me home, for I was scared,
My hair was all turning into beard.
Hokey, pokey, winker wun,
We're all good fellows, we'll have some fun, etc.

If I get home. I bet my life I'll stay there,
California'll trouble me no more;
I've tried my luck at everything and everywhere,
And never had been half so poor before.

First Chorus:
For I've nothing in the world but meat,
And that I really cannot eat;
Such times, I never saw the like,
Oh, Lord, I wish I was back in Pike!
Hokey, pokey, winker wun,
We're all good fellows, we'll have some fun, etc.


Put's Original California Songster, pp. 41-42

Lyrics and tune in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, pp. 49-50

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[Tune notes by Artful Codger]
Nelly Was a Lady: written by Stephen Collins Foster in 1852. The MIDI link above is to pdmusic.org.
Sheet music [PDF] in the Lester S. Levy Collection.

[Old] Dan Tucker: see tune notes to Striking a Lead. The MIDI link above is to pdmusic.org.

King of the Cannibal Islands: published ca. 1832 (?), the tune was taken from a quadrille in "Les Deux Rivales" written by John Charles White ca. 1830. I regret that I can't re-locate the original source of the MIDI I've posted.
Digital Tradition:
Mudcat thread: King of the Cannibal Islands
Mudcat thread: King of the Cannibal Islands

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