The Book of Scottish Song/African Song

African Song.

[Written by John Struthers to the tune of the "Flowers of the Forest." This is a versification of the evening song sung by the negro women, who gave food and shelter to poor Mungo Park when about to perish. "The air," says Park, "was plaintive, and the words literally translated were these: 'The winds roared, and the rains fell, the poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, he has no wife to grind his corn: let us pity the white man, no mother has he.'"]

The winds they were roaring,
The rains they were pouring,
When, lonely, the white man, a wonder to see!
Both hungry and weary,
Desponding and dreary,
He came, and he sat in the shade of our tree.

No mother is by him,
With milk to supply him;
He wanders an outcast, how sad must he be!
Even corn, could he find it,
He has no wife to grind it—
Let us pity the white man, no mother has he!

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