False Lamkin

Said the Lord to his Lady
As he rode away from home,
Beware of False Lamkin
For he'll do you much harm.

What care I for False Lamkin
Or none of his kin?
When the doors are all bolted
And the windows close pinned

At the back kitchen window
False Lamkin crept in
And h pricked on of the elder babes
With a bright silver pin.

Oh, nursemaid, oh nursemaid
How soundly you sleep
Can't you hear one of the elder babes
A tryin'to weep?

How durst I go down
In the dead of the night?
When there's no fire kindled
No candle alight.

As she was a goin' down
Thinkin' of no harm
False Lamkin, he caught her
Right tight in his arms.

Oh, spare my life, oh spare my life
My life that's so sweet
You shall have as many guineas
As stones in the street.

Oh, spare my life, oh spare my life
Till one of the clock,
You shall have my daughter, Betsy
The fairest of the flock.

Fetch me your daughter Betsy
She'll do me some good
She shall hold the silver basin
To ketch her own heart's blood.

Poor Betsy bein' up
At the window so high
Saw her own dearest father
Come a-ridin' close by.

Oh father, dearest father
O blame not of me
For it was False Lamkin
Killed baby and me.

There's blood in the kitchen
There's blood in the hall
There's blood in the parlor
Where the lady did fall.

False Lamkin shall be hung
From the gallows so high
While his bones, they are burning
In the fire close by.

From the Max Hunter Collection
Collected from Jane Robinson, Fayettville, AR, December 1958
Child #93
RG
oct00