O pointy birds, O pointy pointy,
Anoint my head, anointy-nointy.

John Lillison, “Pointy Birds”

— Where? — Where?

Reader, your curiosity is extremely annoying. What the devil does it have to do with you? If I told you that it was Pontoise or Saint-Germain or Loreto or Compostella, would you be any the wiser?

If you insist I will tell you that they made their way towards… yes, why not? …towards a huge château, on whose façade were inscribed the words: ‘I belong to nobody and I belong to everybody. You were here before you entered and you will still be here after you have left.’

— Did they go into this château?

No, because either the inscription was a lie, or they were there before they went in.

— Well, did they manage to leave, at least?

No, because either the inscription was a lie, or they were still there after they left.

— And what did they do there?

Jacques said whatever it was written up above that he would say and his master whatever he liked. And they were both right.

— What kind of people did they find there?

A mixture.

— What did they say?

A few truths and a lot of lies.

— Were there intelligent men there?

Where are there not some? And damned questioners whom they avoided like the plague.

Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist and His Master

Was two sisters loved one man,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

He loved the youngest a little the best,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

Them two sisters going down stream,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

The oldest pushed the youngest in,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

She made a fiddle out of her bones,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

She made the screws out of her fingers,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

She made the strings out of her hair,
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

The first string says, “Yonder sets my sister on a rock tying of a true-love’s knot.”
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

The next string says, “She pushed me in the deep so far.”
Jelly flower jan;
The rose marie;
The jury hangs o’er
The rose marie.

Sung by Mrs. Samuel Harmon, Cade’s Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, “The Two Sisters” (Child 10)