[Music]
An' Phareoh's daughter went down to thee water
An' foun' there thee beauteeful child,
Among thee tall bushes thee reeds an' thee rushes
Thee babee look'd sweetlee an' smil'd.
Recorded from singing of Miss Will Allen Dromgoole, Nashville,
Tennessee, as she remembered it sung in 1890 by Mr. Tate, stage driver
from Beersheba to Beersheba Springs on Cumberland Mountain in
Tennessee. The unusual spelling is an attempt at reproducing the
emphatic rhythmic pronunciation of Mr. Tate. The one stanza given
above was all Miss Dromgoole remembered. The full text, however, was
recorded by Mr. Fred Haun of Newport, Tennessee, from the singing of
his mother, Mrs. Maggie Haun, and placed at my disposal by Miss
Mildred Haun, his sister. This rather defective text is as follows:
The ladies were wending their way
As Pharo's daughter stepped down to the water
To bathe in the cool of the day.
Before it was dark she opened the ark
And found the sweet infant was there.
She took him in pity and thought him so pretty;
That made little Moses so glad.
She called him her own, her beautiful son,
And sent for a nurse that was near.
By the side of the river so clear
They carried that beautiful child
To his own tender mother, his sister and brother;
Little Moses looked happy and smiled.
His mother so good done all that she could
To hear [rear?] him and teach him with care.
Then away by the sea that was red
Stood Moses the servant of God.
While in him confided the deed [sea ?] was divided
While upward he lifted his rod.
The Jews safely crossed while Pharo's host
Was drounded in the water and lost.
Then away by the mountain so high
Stood Moses with trembling an' awe;
With lightning and thunder, great signs and wonders,
While God was giving the law.
He wrote it down on two tables of stone
Before he returned to the sky.
Then away on the mountain so high
Stood the last one he ever might see.
While Isreal victorious, his hope was most gloriest,
Would soon over Jordan be free.
His neighbors did cease, he departed in peace,
And rest-es in heaven above.
No. 28
MOURNER'S LAMENTATION or CHURCH'S DESOLATION, CHH 265