I Was the Boy for Bewitching 'Em

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

Folk songs, Irish

Seduction--Songs and music

Kenney, James, 1780-1849

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

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English

Text

I Am The Boy For Bewitching Them

I was the boy for bewitching them,
Whether good-humored or coy.
All cried when I was beseeching them,
Do what you will with me joy.
For I was the boy for bewitching them.

Daughters be cautious and steady,
Mammies would cry out for fear.
Would not you take care now of Teddy,
Oh! he is the devil, my dear.
For I was the boy for bewitching them.

From every quarter I gathered them,
Very few rivals had I.
If I found any I lathered them,
That made them plaguily shy.
For I was the boy for bewitching them.

Pat Mooney my Shelah once meeting,
It wigged him beginning his clack,
Says he, at my heart I have a beating,
Says I, then take one at your back.
For I was the boy for bewitching them.

Many a lass that would fly away,
When other wooer, but spoke,
Once if I looked her a die away,
There was an end of the joke.
For I was the boy for bewitching them.

Beauties, no matter how cruel,
Hundreds of lads though they crossed,
When I came nigh to them jewel,
Melted like mud in a frost
For I was the boy for bewitching them.

1804

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