Mr. Sharp has also taken this down note for note in North Devon from an old farmer, Mr. Lake of Worlington, who remembered the use of oxen ploughing.
A very similar folk-song is found in France, with its refrain, naming the oxen—
"Aronda, Vironda,
Charbonné, Maréchaô,
Motet et Roget,
Mortaigne et Chollet,
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! mon mignon,
He! he! he! he! he! he! mon valet."
See George Sand's account of the song in "Le mare au diable," c. 2; Tiersot, op. cit., p. 157.
[58.] Flora, The Lily of The West. Two melodies have been noted down to this ballad, one from Matthew Baker, the old cripple on Lew Down, the other from Samuel Fone. The first is identical with one obtained in Yorkshire by Mr. Kidson.
The words are on Broadsheets by Such, Fortey, Barr of Leeds, etc.
In the original the lover betrayed by Flora stabs to the heart the "lord of high degree" who has supplanted him—
"I walked up to my rival with a dagger in my hand,
And seized him from my false love, and bid him boldly stand;
Then, mad with desperation, I swore I'd pierce his breast,
And I was betrayed by Flora, the Lily of the West."
He is tried for murder, but "a flaw was in the indictment found," and he escapes the gallows. And the ballad winds up—