Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/266

 254 yournal of American Folk-Lore.

The " Indian rebels " appear from their lurking-place, and a battle ensues, which lasts all day, in which eighteen out of thirty-four Eng- lish are killed, while the Pequot Paugus is slain and his band defeated. The chaplain particularly distinguishes himself in the action : —

Our worthy Captain Lovewell among them there did die ; They killed Lieutenant Robbins, and wounded good young Frye, Who was our English chaplain : he many Indians slew, And some of them he scalped when bullets round him flew.

A version of the second ballad relating to the same action was communicated to the editor of this Journal by James Russell Lowell ; but it differs from that printed by Farmer only in the order of the verses, and indeed seems to be a rearrangement of the latter. The ballad is very literary in character, and according to the opinion of Dr. Samuel A. Green, Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, is probably a composition of the early part of the nine- teenth century.

Here may also be mentioned a manuscript ballad relating to events °f 1 75 5, printed in the " Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society," April and May, 1894. The writer, who composed in the same year, regarded the occurrences of the twelvemonth as a sign that the Judgment Day was at hand.

And Now, O Land, New England Land, Amased be & trembling Stand, Because the Judge Stands at the Door ; Forsake your sins, repent therefore.

After the preceding pages had been written, a friend pointed out that the ballad " On Springfield Mountain," mentioned by Dr. Beau- champ, in a form made intentionally more absurd, was included by John Phoenix (pseudomyn of George H. Derby) in " Squibob Papers," New York, 1865, pp. 45-52. The introductory lines are nearly the same.

On Springfield Mounting there did dwell A likely youth, I knowed him well ; Leftenant Carter's only son, A comely youth, nigh twenty-one.

The ballad itself, I am told, is still remembered, and survives as a comic song. No doubt, therefore, it will hereafter be possible to present a complete version.

William Wells Newell.

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