Bile Dem Cabbage Down
Went up on the mountain
Just to give my horn a blow
Thought I heard my true love say
Yonder comes my beau
Bile dem cabbage down
Turn dem hoecakes round
The only song that I can sing
Is bile dem cabbage down
Took my gal to the blacksmith shop
To have her mouth made small
She turned around a time or two
And swallowed shop and all
Possum in a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground
Raccoon says you son-of-a-gun
Shake some 'simmons down
Someone stole my old 'coon dog
Wish they'd bring him back
He chased the big hogs through the fence
And the little ones through the crack
Met a possum in the road
Blind as he could be
Jumped the fence and whipped my dog
And bristled up at me
Once I had an old gray mule
His name was Simon Slick
He'd roll his eyes and back his ears
And how that mule would kick
How that mule would kick
He kicked with his dying breath
He shoved his hind feet down his throat
And kicked himself to death
Raccoon has a bushy tail,
Possum's tail is bare,
Rabbit's got no tail at all
But a little bunch of hair.
Raccoon and the possum
Rackin' cross the prairie,
Raccoon ax the possum
Did she want to marry?
Possum is a cunning thing,
He travels in the dark,
And never thinks to curl his tail
Till he hears old Rover bark.
Possum up a 'simmon tree
Raccoon on the ground
Raccoon says to the possum,
Won't you shake them 'simmons down?
Jaybird died with the whoopin' cough,
Sparrow died with the colic.
Along come the frog with a fiddle on his back,
Inquirin' his way to the frolic.
From Lomax;_Folk Songs of North America, adapted from the singing of
Peggy Seeger.
Note that many of these verses are also often "floated" into and out of
other songs such as Cindy or Old Joe Clark.AJS
AJS
APR99
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!