“Salmon Fishers”
Description
"Cam ye by the salmon fishers? Cam ye by the roperee? Saw ye a sailor laddie Sailing on the raging sea?" The girl may describe the sailor she loves, or how they courted, or how they expect to marry
Notes
This is a difficult song to assess. The first stanza has relatively invariant. What follows is not. Several of the other versions (Montgomerie's, Gomme's II) follow this with stanzas straight out of "Katie Cruel/I Know Where I'm Going." Other texts have none of this -- but don't agree particularly closely, either.
Under the circumstances, any song starting with the "Salmon Fishers/Salmon Fishing" stanza must file here, but it must be accepted that any short "I Know Where I'm Going" might be a defective version of this, or of the "Katie Cruel/Leeboy's Lassie" type. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
References
- Montgomerie-ScottishNR 78, "(Cam you by the salmon fishers)" (1 text)
- DT, SALMFISH
- ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #39, "Cam' Ye By" (1 text)
- Roud #12978
- BI, MSNR078