Hi,

I knew that was you but I didn't know it was only you (that you wrote all the "Dungbeetle" articles)- very good articles.

As you said-- Smith's version is a hybrid- at least in two places. It borrows from the "Distressed Maid ballads." However one of the places, "I caught fast hold of her lily-white hand/ And I kissed those cheek and chin," is unique to her. The other place, "Look how she go, look how she flows/She's a-floating by the tide," is found in other miller's Apprentice versions.

The burning question is: Why has no English traditional version been collected, been in print or written about (in Notes and Queries etc.) before 1880 (if you can accept Baring-Gould's re-write as traditional --after that it's 1904)?

Richie

Richie