Jim Stafford - Swamp Witch

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Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp

Where the strange green reptiles crawl

Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees

Like sausage on a smokehouse wall

Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes

An' all of them watching you

Stay off the track to Hattie's Shack in the back of the Black Bayou



Way up the road from Hattie's Shack

Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town

Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down

Rumours of what she'd done, rumours of what she'd do

Kept folks off the track of hattie's shack

In the back of the Black Bayou



One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on

And the swamp water overflowed

Mosquitoes and the fever grabbed the town like a fist

Doctor Jackson was the first to go

Some say the plague wasa brought by Hattie

There was talk of a hang'n too

But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles

From the bowels of the Black bayou



Early one morn 'tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky

There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry

In the square there was found a big black round

Vat full of gurgling brew

Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round

"It came from the Black Bayou"



There ain't much pride when you're trapped inside

A slowly sink'n ship

Scooped up the liquid deep and green

And the whole town took a sip

Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue

Let's thank old Hattie for sav'n our town

We'll fetch her from the Black Bayou



Party of ten of the town's best men headed for Hattie's Shack

Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good

And they're gonna bring Hattie back

Never found Hattie and they never found the shack

And they never made a trip back in

'Twas a parchment note they found tacked to a stump

Said don't come look'n again