Annotation:Tinker's Stick (The)
X: 1 T:Tinker's Stick R:reel D:Matt Molloy: Stony Steps Z:id:hn-reel-876 M:C| L:1/8 K:G ~B3G AEGE | DGBG AGED | ~B3A ~G3B | dBAd BG~G2 :| |: ~g3f g2dg | egdg egd2 | ~g3f gedg |1 ea~a2 afef :|2 ea~a2 aged ||
TINKER'S STICK, THE. AKA – “Tinker's Sticke.” AKA and see “Boil the Kettle Early (3),” “Cloontia Reel (The),” “Far Field (The),” "Garda Nua (An)," “Michael Dwyer's Favourite,” “Nancy in the Hobble,” "New Policeman (3) (The)," "Paddy Bolster's Reel," "Reel of Rio (2) (The)," "Twin Brothers (1) (The)," "Lady Cork's Reel." Irish, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB.
While it may in no way be connected with the reel "The Tinker's Stick", such an implement is mentioned in a ballad vignette that was recorded in William Makepeace Thackeray's Cornhill Magazine, vol 19 (1892, pp. 75-76). "The Maid and the Box" tells of a country girl who goes to London where she works for seven years as manages to save some money, which she puts in a decorated box. She puts the box on her head for her journey home, when she encounters a tinker, who forces his company on her. Soon he demands to know what is in the box she carries, and, discovering it is locked, he demands the key. As he stoops to unlock the chest, the girl snatches up the tinker's stick and beats him with it:
The first good knock to him she gave,
It made him tumble down;
The sefond knock to him she gave,
It made the tinker swoon;
The third good knock to him she gave,
It was behind the head;
The fourth good knock to him she gave,
The tinker he was dead.
