Seven Curses

(Bob Dylan)

Old Reilly stole a stallion

But they caught him and they brought him back

And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground

With an iron chain around his neck

Old Reilly's daughter got a message

That her father was goin' to hang

She rode by night and came by morning

With gold and silver in her hand

When the judge he saw Reilly's daughter

His old eyes deepened in his head

Sayin', "Gold will never free your father

The price, my dear, is you instead. "

"Oh I'm as good as dead," cried Reilly

"It's only you that he does crave

And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all

Get on your horse and ride away. "

"Oh father you will surely die

If I don't take the chance to try

And pay the price and not take your advice

For that reason I will have to stay. "

The gallows shadows shook the evening

In the night a hound dog bayed

In the night the grounds were groanin'

In the night the price was paid

The next mornin' she had awoken

To know that the judge had never spoken

She saw that hangin' branch a-bendin'

She saw her father's body broken

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:

That one doctor will not save him

That two healers will not heal him

That three eyes will not see him

That four ears will not hear him

That five walls will not hide him

That six diggers will not bury him

And that seven deaths shall never kill him