Lowlands, Lowlands Low

Also known as “The island Lass” Hugill says this was a halyard song of West Indian origin. Cecil Sharp also collected it in Bristol, which had ships and seamen of West Indian trade (sugar and rum). “Junk" (verse 3) was old sailor slang for salted meat. Some was so well preserved that sailors used to carve it into sculpture – it is said to have had a texture and grain similar to mahogany! “Balaam's ass” (a donkey) appears in the Bible but may well not be what sailors sang on board…. The tune is said to be a form of Thomas Arne's tune for Isaac Bickerstaffe's lyric, "The Miller of Dee," the smash hit of Bickerstaffe's comic opera, "Love in a Village" (1762).

 
Lowlands, Lowlands Low
 
 
Our packet is the Island Lass
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
There's a laddie howlin' at the main topmast
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
 
The old man he's from Barbados
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
He's got the name of Hammer Toes
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
 
He gives us bread as hard as brass
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
Our junk's as salt as a Balem's ass
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
 
The monkey's raised in a soldier's clothes
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
Now, where he got 'em from, God only knows
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
 
We'll haul 'em high and let 'em dry
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
We'll trice 'em up into the sky
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
 
It's up aloft that yard must go
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
Up aloft from down below
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
 
Lowlands, me boys, and up she goes
Low lands lowlands lowlands low
Get changed, me boys, for your shore-going clothes
Low lands lowlands lowlands low