From The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Newman Ivey White, General Editor (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1952), page 220.

[The editor classifies this with a group of related songs he calls THE CATFISH. He cites as his source Mountain Songs of North Carolina by Susannah Wetmore and Marshall Bartholomew (New York: G. Schirmer, n.d.*), page 25-7.]

BANJO SAM.
"Obtained from Obadiah Johnson of Crossnore, Avery County, probably in 1940."*

1. Catfish, catfish, goin' up stream,
Catfish, catfish, where you been?
I grabbed that cattish by the snout,
I pulled that cattish wrong side out.
Yo-ho! Banjo Sam.

2. As I was goin' thro' the field
A blacksnake bit me on the heel.
I grabbed me a stick and I done my best,
And I ran my head in a hornet's nest.
Yo-ho! Banjo Sam.

3. As I was goin' down the road,
I met a terrapin and a toad.
The terrapin he began to sing.
The toad he cut the pigeon wing.
Yo-ho! Banjo Sam.


[* However, both WorldCat and Google Books give a publication date of 1926 for Mountain Songs of North Carolina, so White's assertion that it was collected "probably in 1940" must be mistaken.]