Kentucky - Waterways & Ponds

A historical survey of the place names of waterways and ponds in Kentucky

"The Cut-Off Head Frozen On": Some International Versions of a Tall Tale

C'est l'étude comparative d'un conte de mensonge dont la première version terre-neuvienne date d'environ 1795. Par une journée froide d'hiver, un homme est décapité mais à cause du gel, la tête reste attachée au corps, laissant l'homme indemne. Cependant, lorsque son cou dégèle, la tête tombe. Ce conte n'est signalé ni dans The Types of the Folktale d'Aarne-Thompson, ni dans le Motif-Index de Thompson.Trois textes de la Renaissance — allemand, français et anglais — sont présentés. Les versions modernes qui les suivent démontrent que le conte est courant à Terre-Neuve, au Nouveau-Braunswick, aux états de Vermont et d'Indiana, ainsi qu'aux Orcades et aux îles Shetland en Ecosse

One morning after breakfast I was taking a bit of a walk

Song about man who buys a cock, puts it under his coat, and walks home

While standing on Murphy's Corner, not doing any harm

Describes an overnight stay in Placentia Jail. Incorporates two couplets from a humourous song about a ball game between two varieties of bugs. Describes the poor food as heavy, hard bread. Implies that the arrest was undeserved.Informant (on the tape, immediately after reciting the verse) states that this "song" was made up by Paul Martin, from Freshwater, P.B., in about 1967. He says that Martin makes up a lot of songs and that this was intended to be sung. The couplets regarding the cockroaches and bed bugs are known to the indexer from her teen years. In her version the bedbugs' opponents in the ballgame were "cooties". The song enjoyed wide poularity in California in the 1950s and '60s

Request for Contributions

Notes and Querie

Oh Molly, lovely Molly, the rout it is begun

Willie leaves Molly to go to war, and is killed.Mercer 1979: 132; Fowke 1979: 42; Carnell, "Ballads in the Charles H. Firth Collection" B9 (A) 1979: 7