Thanks, everybody. I knew you'd come through. This has been a thoroughly enjoyable thread to read through.

I actually never heard the part about the Eagle. The way I learned the song was:

All around the cobbler's bench
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought 'twas all in fun
Pop! goes the weasel

A penny for a spool of thread
A penny for a needle
That's the way the money goes
Pop! goes the weasel

So the pawning story makes sense. I would imagine that the monkey was added later by someone who didn't know that this particular "weasel" was not an animal.

Aloha,
Mark