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Cow that ate the Piper, The

Found in c.abc from the John Chambers abc collection
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Cow that ate the Piper, The - staff notation
X:3509
T:Cow that ate the Piper, The
S:Digital Tradition, cowpiper
N:Tune: Denny Byrne, The Piper
B:From Colm O'Lochlainn's More Irish Street Ballads
O:Irish
Z:dt:cowpiper
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:2/4=100
W:In the year ninety-eight, when our troubles were great,
W:It was treason to be a Milesian (Militian?).
W:I can never forget the big black whiskered set,
W:That history tells us were Hessians.
W:In them heart breaking times we had all sorts of crimes,
W:As murdering never was rifer.
W:On the hill of Glencree, not an acre from me,
W:Lived bould Denny Byrne, the piper.
W:
W:Neither wedding nor wake was worth an old shake,
W:If Denny was not first invited,
W:For at emptying legs or squeezing the bags,
W:He astonished as well as delighted.
W:In such times poor Denny could not ear a penny,
W:Martial law had a sting like a viper -
W:It kept Denny within till his bones and his skin
W:Were a-grin through the rags of the piper.
W:
W:'Twas one heavenly night, with the moon shining bright,
W:Coming home from the fair of Rathangan.
W:He happened to see, from the branch of a tree,
W:The corpse of a Hessian there hanging;
W:Says Denny, "These rogues have fine boots, I've no brogues,"
W:He laid on the heels such a griper,
W:They were so gallus tight, and he pulled with such might,
W:Legs and boots came away with the piper.
W:
W:So he tucked up the legs and he took to his pegs,
W:Till he came to Tim Kavanagh's cabin,
W:"By the powers," says Tim, "I can't let you in,
W:You'll be shot if you stop out there rappin'."
W:He went round to the shed, where the cow was in bed,
W:With a wisp he began for to wipe her -
W:They lay down together on the seven foot feather,
W:And the cow fell a-hugging the piper.
W:
W:The daylight soon dawned, Denny got up and yawned,
W:Then he dragged on the boots of the Hessian:
W:The legs, by the law! he threw them on the straw,
W:And he gave them leg-bail on his mission.
W:When Tim's breakfast was done he sent out his son
W:To make Denny lep like a lamp-lighter -
W:When two legs there he saw, he roared like a daw
W:"Oh! daddy, de cow eat de piper."
W:
W:"Sweet bad luck to the baste, she'd a musical taste,"
W:Says Tim, "to go eat such a chanter,
W:Here Padraic, avic, take this lump of a stick,
W:Drive her up to Glenealy, I'll cant her."
W:Mrs Kavanagh bawled - the neighbours were called,
W:They began for to humbug and jibe her,
W:To the churchyard she walks with the legs in a box,
W:Crying out, "We'll be hanged for the piper."
W:
W:The cow then was drove just a mile or two off,
W:To a fair by the side of Glenealy,
W:And the crathur was sold for four guineas in gold
W:To the clerk of the parish, Tim Daly.
W:They went into a tent, and the luck-penny spent,
W:(For the clerk was a woeful old swiper),
W:Who the divil was there, playing the Rakes of Kildare,
W:But their friend, Denny Byrne, the piper.
W:
W:Then Tim gave a bolt like a half-broken colt,
W:At the piper he gazed like a gommach;
W:Says he, "By the powers, I thought these eight hours,
W:You were playing in Dhrimindhu's stomach."
W:But Denny observed how the Hessian was served,
W:So they all wished Nick's cure to the viper,
W:And for gra that they met, their whistles they wet,
W:And like devils they danced round the piper.
K:D
dd|d2DD D2A-A|A2GF E2FG|A2BA A2GF|E4 D2 dd|
d2DD D2AA|A2GF E2F-G|A2BA A2GF|E4 D2 AA|
A2Bc d2d-d|e2dA A2cd|e2cA c2BA|B4 A2 dd|
d2DD D2AA|A2GF E2F-G|A2BA A2G-F|E4 D2||

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