Do Me Ama
(De Me Ama)
As Jack was walking thro' the square,
He met a lady and a squire
Now Jack he heard the squire say,
Tonight with you I mean to say
Ch: Do me a-ma Dinghy a-ma Do-me a-ma day
"I will tie a string to my little finger,
And the other end hang out of the window,
Then you must come and pull the string,
I'll come down and let you in."
"Damn my eyes," says Jack, "if I do not venture
For to pull the string hanging out of the window."
So Jack he went and pulled the string,
She came down and let him in.
"Oh, what is that which smells so tarry?
I've nothing in the house that's tarry;
It's a tarry sailor down below,
Kick him out- in the snow."
"Oh, what d'you want, you tarry sailor?
You've come to rob me of my treasure."
"Oh no," says Jack, "I pulled the string,
You came down and let me in."
Source: Whall
From Whall (Sea Songs and Shanties):
This is a good example of a class of song peculiarly the sailor’s own, which treated of Jack’s successful amours, and in which “maid servants follow him all the world over… ‘Mistress’s only daughters’ pine and die for him. Ladies single him out as an object of devoted attachment. And even princesses deign to bestow their love upon a humble son of Neptune.”
Although Jack seems rebuffed, perhaps there are important verses missing.