A friend calls these songs "chain letter," since they are everywhere and continually add new lines. Because they are fun to sing, they are picked up by everyone and spread rapidly. As a kid, we sang about the hole in the log. It is almost impossible to determine the source.

Another kind adds new verses, such as the Jersey (French) song, "Sus man j'valet," the source for the other two variants, one a loggers song in Canada (Were you ever in Quebec?), and a "chantey" generally known as "Donkey Riding." The Jersey version is about various towns along the coast of France while the chantey version mentions ports all over the world.