A pretty witch was bathing
By the beach one summer day;
There came a boat with pirates
Who carried her away.
The ship had a breeze behind her,
Over the waves went she!
“O Signor Capitano,
O Captain of the Sea!
I’ll give you a hundred ducats,
If you will set me free!”
“I will not take a hundred;
You’re worth much more, you know:
I’ll sell you to the Sultan
For a thousand golden sequins:
You put yourself far too low.”
“You will not take a hundred,
Very well then, let them be!
But I have a constant lover
Who, as you may discover,
Will never abandon me.”
On the deck, before the rover,
The witch began to sing:
“Oh come to me, my lover!”
And the wind as it stole over
Began to howl and ring.
Louder and ever louder
Became the tempest’s roar,
The captain in a passion
Thus at the lady swore:
“I believe that your windy lover
Is the devil and nothing more!”
Wilder and ever wilder
The tempest raged and rang,
“There are rocks ahead, and the wind dead aft,
Thank you, my love!” the lady laughed
As unto the wind she sang.
“Oh go with your cursed lover
To inferno to sing for me!”
So cried the angry captain,
And threw the lady over
To sink in the stormy sea.
But changing into a sea-gull
Over the waves she flew.
“O capitain, captain bold,” sang she,
“’Tis true you’ve missed the gallows tree,
But now you’ll drown in the foaming sea,
O captain, forever adieu!”
“Talkin’ of witches and magicianers,”
Cried out Jack Saltonstall of Newbury port,
“They are the devil’s own parishioners,
And I knew one of a peculiar sort,
Because he was a sailor—had he been
A lawyer, now, it wouldn’t seem so queer:
For conjurers ’mong us ain’t often seen,
And he was of the kind who ain’t small beer,
Possessing cash enough to roll in bliss:
However that may be, the story’s this.”