Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo

Subject: Snail, snail, first your head and then y
From: Gypsy
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:09 PM

Well tis the season of selling produce, pampering plants, and.....squishing snails. I can only recollect this one line of a childs verse: Snail, snail, first your head and then your tail. Anyone remember the rest? It's driving me starkers! Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks, all

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: Gypsy
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 10:27 PM

Well, gotta try at least one refresh...yeah sure But the dratted thing is stuck in me head. He'p me, he'p me please!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: GUEST,Arjay
Date: 08 Oct 01 - 03:44 PM

Did you ever find it, Gypsy?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: Gypsy
Date: 08 Oct 01 - 10:43 PM

That i didn't. Just thousands of the damn beasties outside. Think we'll shift over to being an escargot ranch. Easily have 10 million head....and tails!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: masato sakurai
Date: 08 Oct 01 - 11:54 PM

Seemingly not the one asked for, but there's a Japanese children's song entitled "Katatsumuri" (Snail) on the same theme. Almost all the Japanese know this song. The literal translation is:

Snail, snail
Where is your head?
Stick out your horns, stick out your antennae
And stick out your head!

SOURCE: From this site.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Oct 01 - 07:23 AM

Or a variant of this nursery rhyme?

Sanil, snail,
Come out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you
As black as coal.

Snail, snail,
Put out your horns,
I'll give you bread
And barley corns.

There're a lot of variants in Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, but "Snail, snail, first your head and then your tail" isn't in it.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 02:40 AM

Only slightly different than that given above by masato sakurai, the following suggests a children's "Singing Game," where the children pantomine according to the first verses of the recitation, and (usually) the last verse is the signal for a lot of squealing, running around, grabbing/tagging, falling down and such (like some Catter parties I've heard about? - but with a more organized "pattern" to it.) Sometimes also involving "hiding" and "finding," like our games with GUEST(?)

My references for this kind of material are limited, but one source suggests a common pattern for such games consisting of:
ENTREATY or INVITATION
followed by a
THREAT or DECLARATION OF DISASTER
followed by
SIGNAL FOR ACTION

In the form given below, the "format" appears consistent with such a game. Specific text used is frequently quite variable.

Snail! Snail!

Snail, snail
Put out your horns
I'll give you bread
And barleycorns.

Snail, snail, shoot out your horns:
Father and mother are dead;
Brother and sister are in the back yard,
Begging for barley bread.

Snail! snail!
Come out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you
As black as a coal.

An ancient incantation, versions of which have been found all over Europe, and also Russia and China.

John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: masato sakurai
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 08:23 AM

"Snail, snail, first your head" seems to be a variant of the following singing game "Snail":

The Song:
Snail, snail, come out and be fed
First your feelers, then your head
Then your Mama and your Papa
Will feed you mutton fries, mutton!

The Game: Everyone starts in a circle, holding hands. As you sing the song, turn it into a spiral (like a snail's shell) as you skip around. When you're all coiled up, reverse direction and unwind the snail!

SOURCE: HERE.

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: SNAIL, SNAIL
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 02:03 AM

There's a version compounded with (or, based on) "Shule Aron" in Arthur Palmer Hudson, Folk Tunes from Mississippi (1937; reprinted Da Capo, 1977, p. 32; wit tune).

SNAIL, SNAIL
(Shule Aron)
Sung by Mrs Theodosia Long.

1
Oh, snail snail come out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal,
I'll laugh like a doe, like a dill, a mack, a sail,
Oh, still a mack a vallian lando.

CHORUS:
Shule, shule, a shule go crule
Shule go shack, and a shule go crule,
Laugh like a doe, like a dill, a mack, a sail,
Still a mack a vallian lando.

2
Oh, I'll go up on yonder hill,
And there I'll sit and cry my fill,
That every tear may turn a mill,
Oh, still a mack a vallian lando.

3
I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel,
I'll sell my loom and spinning wheel,
To buy my wife a load of cheese,
Oh, still a mack a vallian lando.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 09:17 AM

I've always liked the one by the Clancy children on Tradition's SO EARLY IN THE MORNING (recently reissued on cd) called "Shelly Kee Bookey":

Shelly Kee, Shelly Kee Bookey,
Put out all your horns,
All the ladies are coming to see you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21 Dec 02 - 07:09 PM

There's a rhyme in Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673-1915) and Traditional Poems:

THE SNAIL

Sneel, sneel, put oot your horn,
Your fayther an' muthel'll gie ye some corn.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SNAIL
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 03:02 AM

From Norah & William Montgomerie, Scottish Nursery Rhymes (Hogarth Press, 1947, p. 30):

THE SNAIL

Snaillie, snaillie, shoot oot yer horn,
An tell me if it will be a bonny day the morn.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: Gypsy
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 10:52 PM

Masato, bless you, too much fun. Thanks for all the words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and th
From: Tinker
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 11:23 PM

Masato, we actually played that game at Girl Scout camp although I'm sure the final line was not about mutton... I'll have to see if I can find a reference. It's a great game because you can involve 50 to 100 people and it takes on a labyrinth type quality as it is chanted over and over and over.... When it doesn't dissolve into giggles that is... Thanks for the memories


Tinker

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and the
From: GUEST,Dian
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 06:09 PM

I was so surprised to find my parents' collection of Scottish Nursery Rhymes quoted so often by Masato, and with such careful reference to publisher and page. Thank you Masato. William and Norah Montgomerie produced many other books of folk tales and stories.

Do you also know the "Horny goloch"? Or is this another link?

What an amazing site. Thank you all.

Dian Montgomerie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and the
From: GUEST,Dian
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 01:15 AM

SNAIL

Snail upon the wall,
Have you got at all
Anything to tell
About your shell?

Only this, my child
When the wind is wild,
Or when the sun is hot,
It's all I've gto.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and the
From: GUEST,Dian
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 01:24 AM

Amazing what happens when you press "return"! Here it is again:

SNAIL

Snail upon the wall,
Have you got at all
Anything to tell
About your shell?

Only this, my child
When the wind is wild,
Or when the sun is hot,
It's all I've got.

JOHN DRINKWATER

from "Poems and Pictures" chosen by Kathleen Lines and Norah Montgomerie. Abelard-Schuman 1969.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: masato sakurai
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 02:39 AM

Dian, I love your parents' nursery rhyme book. My copy, which I found in Tokyo some 10 years ago, is the third impression.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and the
From: Dian
Date: 23 Feb 03 - 03:14 AM

Masato, I was feeling a bit sad thinking that they had been forgotten (apart from in Scotland) because, when I mentioned them to someone organising folk collections, they were not even interested to know about them. Then I found Mudcat Café!

I lived through all their trials and tribulations (trying to get people interested) as a child and now when I read some of the rhymes I can hear my mother singing them. She was not a singer but she was musical and loved each little rhyme. It was my father who went out on his bicycle in the early 1950s with his tape recorder (wire at first) to collect what he could from the local East Coast folk singers. His favourite was Jeannie Robertson. We lived on a tiny grant he was given when he was writing his PhD about folklore. After that he was demoted (as far as I can remember - children don't always listen to their parents, but pick up the atmosphere) for taking one year from his school-teaching job to study and write.

So, when I saw your enthusiasm and your careful notes, I knew they were not only remembered outside Scotland, but really appreciated. What a wonderful surprise!

With very best wishes, Dian

Subject: Lyr Add: CHINESE BABY-SONG
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 11:09 AM

Tempo is Allegro, and "Repeated ad infinitum."

X:1
T:Chinese Baby-Song
M:2/4
L:1/8
B:Joe Mitchell Chapple, Heart Songs, 1909; Clearfield, 1997, p. 55
K:D
A2 A3/2 G/|(3AAA A3/2 G/|A A B3/2 B|A A B2|
w:Snail, snali, come out and be fed, Put out your horn, and then your head,
A A B B|A A F F|D D F G|A2 A2:|]
w:And your Pa-pa and your Ma-ma Will give you boiled mut-ton.

Why is the title "Chinese Baby-Song"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 11:15 AM

Sorry, the first line should have been:

A2 A3/2 G/|(3AAA A3/2 G/|A A B3/2 B/|A A B2|

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 02:16 PM

From Gammer Gurton's Garland by Joseph Ritson (London: R. Triphook, 1810), page 32:

Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else I'll make you as black as a coal.*

* It was probably the custom, on repeating these lines, to hold the snail to a candle, in order to make it quit the shell. In Normandy it was the practice at Christmas, for boys to run round fruit-trees, with lighted torches, singing these lines:

Taupes et mulots,
Sortez de vos clos,
Sinon vous brulerai et la barbe et les os.

[Moles and voles,
Get out of your holes,
Or else you will burn with your beard and your bones.]

* * *
From The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (Boston: J. S. Locke & Company, 1833), page 8:

Snail, Snail,
Come out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you black as a coal.
Snail, Snail,
Put out your head,
Or else I'll beat you till you're dead.

* * *
From English Folk-Rhymes by G. F. Northall (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1892), page 326:

Snails.

In Warwickshire and Staffordshire they say—

"Snail, snail, put out your horn,
And I will give you a barleycorn."

In Sussex the rhyme is the same, but the dialect word for snail is "Snag."

In the East Riding the couplet is very similar—

Sneel, sneel, etc.,
Yer fayther an mother'll gie ya some corn.

In West Somerset the verse is of four lines and rather different in character—

"Snarley-'orn, put out your corn,
Father and mother's dead;
Zister 'n brither's out to back door,
Bakin' o' barley bread."

They then throw a great stone to crush the poor creature.

"Eating o' barley bread," is the last line in Essex.

Mr. Henderson, in his Folklore of the Northern Counties, p. 25, gives several examples—

"Snail, snail, etc.,
Or I'll kill your father and mother the morn."

The northern version, he says, is—

"Snail, snail, etc.,
Tell me what's the day t' morn,
To day's the morn to shear the corn,
Blaw bill buck thorn."

He also gives, as more common in the south, the couplet already quoted from Gammer Gurton's Garland, substituting, however, "beat" for "make"; and adds a Devonshire version similar to the West Somerset rhyme—

Snail, snail, shoot out your horn,
Father and mother are dead;
Brother and sister are in the backyard,
Begging for barley bread.

A variant from Yorkshire is—

"Sneel, snaul,
Robbers are coming to pull down your wall.
Sneel, snaul, put out, etc.
Robbers are coming to steal your corn,
Coming at four o'clock in the morn."

The snail is called Odmandod, Odmadod, or Dodman, in Essex and Suffolk. The rhyme in the last county is—

"Dodman, dodman, put out your horn,
Here comes a thief to steal your corn."

And there is this play upon the word amongst children, "I've killed a man!" "What sort of man?" "A Dodman."

Hodman-dodman and Hod-Dod are terms for the snail given in Wheatley's Dictionary of Rhyming Words, published in Transactions of the Philological Society for 1866.

The frequent reference to grain in these rhymes is singular. The creatures are very fond of meal, etc.; in fact they are often trapped in large numbers under a cabbage-leaf placed over a small quantity of bran on which they gather.

A friend suggests that the reference may be owing to a play upon "corn" and "horn," these words having a common etymon, as previously suggested in the notes to Harvest Customs.

* * *
From Negro Folk Rhymes by Thomas W. Talley (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922), page 170:

THE SNAIL'S REPLY

Snail! Snail! Come out'n o' yo' shell,
Or I'll beat on yo' back till you rings lak a bell.

"I do ve'y well," sayed de snail in de shell,
"I'll jes take my chances in here whar I dwell."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jun 10 - 08:32 PM

I believe the lyrics are as follows:

Snail Snail Come out and be fed
first your feelers, then your head
then your momma and poppa
we'll fed you fried meal worms

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 01:47 PM

GGK, very nice, your database. For the tunes, you may be interested in the "ABC notation" method we use in this forum.

Once I watched a TV interview of a starred French chef who proclaimed to his surprised audience: "Escargots taste like nothing, it's the herb butter that makes the difference." (Well, that was no news to me, but others may have felt as if the Pope had renounced the dogma of transsubstantiation.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 14 - 10:30 PM

Snail snail come out and be fed
First your feelers then your head
The your mama and papa
Will feed you fried nothings

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Snail, snail, first your head and then yo
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 19 - 09:43 AM

Then your mama and your papa
We’ll feed you fried mutton