I figured out the "mal" part years ago when I was trying to understand the French words in the song. I finally found "mal cabris" in one of my Louisiana French dictionaries. It might have been the Creole dictionary, but I don't remember.

But now that I think of it, it wouldn't be the Creole one, because they would have spelled cabri with a "k": kabri.

In french standard, "un cabri" (male or female) is a young goat. Also "un chevreau" (male) or "une chevrette" (female). In old french, we said "cabril".
Goat (female) = chèvre
Billy goat (male) = bouc

Marc.

Thanks, Marc, I hadn't heard of those terms. In my limited French, cabri is all I ever heard. Looking in the dictionary of La French, they mention "bique" for a female goat.

Thanks everyone for the spelling corrections!

DP