Susan Johns of Austin, Texas, to Cray, 6/22/96, as sung in Renaissance Fair circles:


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              The Riddle



         My pretty maid I fain would know
         What thing it is will breed delight
         That strives to stand, yet cannot go
         That feeds the mouth that cannot bite?

         Refrain:  (repeat after each verse)
           With a humble dum grumble dum
           humble dum, grumble dum
           humble dum, grumble dum, hey!

         It is a pretty pricking thing
         A pleasing and a standing thing
         It was the truncheon Mars did use
         A bedward bit which maidens choose

         It is a shaft of Cupid's cut
         'Twill  serve to rove, to prick, to butt
         There's never a maid, but by her will,
         Will keep it in her quiver still

         It is a friar with a bald head
         A staff to beat a cuckold dead
         It is a gun which shoots point blank
         And hits betwixt a woman's flank

         It has a head much like a mole's
         And yet it loves to creep in holes
         The fairest she that e'er took life
         For love of this became a wife!