Man Piabba
The other day I saw a lady was selling,
And I wanted something to eat;
I thought she'd have a banana, a bulla and pea
But I step back when I meet her,
She have a basket full of different weed,
She was crying out like she mad.
cho: She have a man piabba, a woman piabba,
Downtown crawling and a lemon grass;
Mumu root, gully root, granny backbone,
Dead man get up and live on to morn;
Corailla bush, deevy-deevy granchon,
And the old compellance weed;
But the only bush she never have,
Was my colly weed.
That old lady was so plainly,
Trying to let me understand;
Man piabba bush can really full your belly,
But you have to cook it in a black pan;
A little sugar, little salt, little nutmeg,
A little tovch of everything.
cho: She have a man piabba, a woman piabba,
Jacob ladder and a duppy krutchit;
Mumu root, gully root, granny backbone,
Dead man get up and live on to morn;
Corailla bush, deevy-deevy granchon,
And the old compellance weed;
But the only bush she never have,
Was my colly weed.
That old lady was so plainly,
Trying to let me understand
Man piabba bush can really full your belly,
But you have to cook it in a black pan;
A little sugar, little salt, little deadnut milk,
A little touch of everything.
ch: She have a man piabba, a woman piabba,
Sweet sweet munu wan a granny cratch-cratch
A belly full and the kusum weed,
Dead man get up and live on to morn;
Corailla bush, deevy-deevy granchon,
And the old compellance weed;
But the only bush she never have,
Was my colly weed.
Note: The pre-Bellafonte version. A Jamaican bandleader, passing
through Hawaii on the way to Japan helped me to write them
out. There are a few words of whose spelling he was
uncertain. DL
DL
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!