George Parkes, Mandeville.
Once upon a time a woman had one daughter, an’ that daughter was the
prettiest girl in an’ around that country. Every man want the girl to
marry, but the mother refuse them as they come. Tiger, too, wanted the
girl, an’ demands the girl, an’ the mother says no. Tiger said if he
don’t get the girl he will kill her. So they remove from that part of
the country and go to another part, into a thick wild wood where no one
live. And she made a house with a hundred doors and a hundred windows
and a large staircase; and the house is an upstairs, an’ there both of
them live.
Tiger hear of it, always loafing aroun’ the house to see if he can
catch the girl, but the girl never come out. During the day, the mother
went to her work, leaving the girl at home. When going out, the mother
fasten all the doors an’ windows; coming home in the evening, at a
certain spot where she can see the house an’ notice that all the
windows an’ doors are close as she leave it, then now she have a song
to sing, go like this,—
“Tom Jones, Tom Jones, Tom Jones!”
(that’s the name of the girl). Girl now—
“Deh lo, madame!”
Woman said to her now,
“Fare you well, fare you well, fare you well,
Fare you well, me dear; fare you well, me love!
A no Tiger, deh la, ho, deh la, ho?
Me jus’ come, ho!”