LAWKAMERCYME
(from More English Fairy Tales - ISBN 978-1-907256-09-7)
There was an old woman, as I've heard tell,
She went to the market her eggs for to sell;
She went to the market, all on a market-day,
And she fell asleep on the king's highway.
There came by a pedlar, whose name was Stout,
He cut her petticoats round about;
He cut her petticoats up to the knees,
Which made the old woman to shiver and freeze.
When this old woman first did wake,
She began to shiver, and she began to shake;
She began to wonder, and she began to cry --
'Lawkamercyme, this is none of I!
'But if it bet, as I do hope it be,
I've a little dog at home, and he'll know me;
If it be I, he'll wag his little tail,
And if it be not I, he'll loudly bark and wail.'
Home went the little woman, all in the dark;
Up got the little dog, and he began to bark;
He began to bark, so she began to cry --
'Lawkamercyme, this is none of I !'
Lawkamercyme is local slang for "Lord Have Mercy on Me". Exactly which part of England it was taken from is unfortunately unknown.
When Joseph Jacobs recorded these tales in the late 1890's, there was no digital media available and he had to go "into the field" and visit storytellers in their villages. Many of the tales and stories he recorded we in the vernacular i.e. as they were said and to retain their "authenticity" he published them as such.
Needless to say the Folklore Society of the day, considered this to be vulgar and unsuitable. Yet Jacobs, Campbell and Lang all chose to do this and put their publications to the test letting the public decide who was correct. Fortunately for us they decided for the folklorists and not the society.
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