These lines were taken from the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", referenced in the Mikhail Sholokhov novel And Quiet Flows the Don (1934), which Seeger had read "at least a year or two before".
Estas liñas foron tomadas desde da canción tradicional cosaca "Koloda-Duda", referencia na novela de Mikhail Sholokhov Тихий Дон (1934), que Seeger lera  "polo menos un ou dous anos antes".