“Gathering Mushrooms”

Description

The singer meets a maid in the fields and asked what she is doing out so early. She is gathering mushrooms to make her mommy catsup. "Her panting breast on mine she pressed ... And her lips on mine did gently join And we both sat down together"

Supplemental text

Gathering Mushrooms
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

The Maid Gathering Mushrooms

From the recording by Robert Cinnamond (IRRCinnamond02: "Love Songs"
FOLKTRAX-158). Transcribed and with notes by John Moulden; quoted
with his permission. - BS

Rising early out of bed,
Across the fields I steered O
When drawing nigh a -mower- passed by
And a pretty fair maid she appeared O
For her head was bare I do declare,
She'd neither hat nor feather on
And she stooped so low gave me to know
It was mushrooms she was gathering O

Chorus 
Oh the gathering O, And she stooped so low gave me to know 
It was mushrooms she was gathering O
 
Where are you going, says I my dear.
Why are you up so early O
I seen you on the dewy ground
Before the -sun- -rose- fairly O
Pray modestly she answered me
And she gave her head one fetch up
And she says I'm gathering mushrooms
For to make my mammy ketchup.
Chorus (O ketchup O)

Her panting breast on mine she pressed
Her heart was like a feather O
And her lips on mine did gently join
And we both sat down together O



Words indicated by -word- are provisional readings 
The line I give as "I seen you on the dewy ground before the sun rose fairly" 
is to be heard as 'before the sower fairly,' which makes no sense, 
so I reconstructed a plausible sonic equivalent.

[I might offer "before the sower CAME BY" or the like as another
possibility, but I grant "sun rose fairly" is more likely. - RBW]

Notes

I thought "catsup" - however it's spelled - was always made from tomatoes. However, it is "a seasoned sauce of puree consistency the principal ingredient of which is usu. tomatoes but sometimes another foodstuff (as mushrooms or walnuts)" (source: _Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged_, 1976)

The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond02 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement. - BS

Recordings

• Robert Cinnamond, "The Maid Gathering Mushrooms" (on IRRCinnamond02)

References

1. ST RcTGMus (Full)
2. Roud #7001
3. BI, RcTGMus