סטאגולי נָטַל אֶת הַקִּלְּשׁוֹן,
הֱנִיחוֹ עַל הַמַּדָּף וְאָמַר:
"אַתָּה שֵׁב בַּצַּד, שָׂטָן,
אֲנִי אֶשְׁלֹט בַּגֵּיהִנֹּם בְּעַצְמִי."
[הבלדה על סטאגולי, 1870, מחבר אנונימי]
It was early, early one mornin',
When I heard my bulldog bark,
Stagolee and Billy Lyons
Was squabblin' in the dark.
Stagolee told Billy Lyons,
'What do you think of that?
You win all my money, Billy,
Now you spit in my Stetson hat.'
Stagolee, he went a-walkin'
In the red-hot, broilin' sun—
Says, 'Bring me my six-shooter,
Lawd, I wants my forty-one.'
Stagolee, he went a-walkin'
Through the mud and through the sand.
Says, 'I feel mistreated this mornin',
I could kill most any man.'
Billy Lyons told Stagolee,
Please don't take my life,
I've got three little helpless chillun
And one poor, pitiful wife.'
'Don't care nothin' about your chillun,
And nothin' about your wife,
You done mistreated me, Billy,
And I'm bound to take your life.'
He shot him three times in the shoulder,
Lawd, and three times in the side,
Well, the last time he shot him
Cause Billy Lyons to die.
Stagolee told Mrs Billy,
'You don't believe yo' man is dead;
Come into the bar-room,
See the hole I shot in his head.'
The high sheriff told the deputies,
Get your pistols and come with me.
We got to go 'rest that
Bad man Stagolee.'
The deputies took their pistols
And they laid them on the shelf—
If you want that bad man Stagolee,
Go 'rest him by yourself.'
High sheriff ask the bartender,
'Who can that bad man be?'
'Speak softly,' said the bartender,
It's that bad man Stagolee.'
He touch Stack on the shoulder,
Say, 'Stack, why don't you run?'
'I don't run, white folks,
When I got my forty-one.'
The hangman put the mask on,
Tied his hands behind his back,
Sprung the trap on Stagolee
But his neck refuse to crack.
Hangman, he got frightened,
Said, 'Chief, you see how it be—
I can't hang this man,
Better set him free.'
Three hundred dollar funeral,
Thousand dollar hearse,
Satisfaction undertaker
Put Stack six feet in the earth.
Stagolee, he told the Devil,
Says, 'Come on and have some Fun—
You stick me with your pitchfork,
I'll shoot you with my forty-one.'
Stagolee took the pitchfork,
And he laid it on the shelf.
Says, 'Stand back, Tom Devil,
I'm gonna rule Hell by myself.'
