The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #72705   Message #1400362
Posted By: masato sakurai
05-Feb-05 - 10:32 PM
Thread Name: Origins:Old Man 'Badiah Jumped in the Fire/Obadiah
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old man 'badiah/Jumped in the fire
(1) From here:
Old Aunt Mariah, jumped in the fire
Fire too hot, jumped in the pot
Pot too black, jumped in the crack
Crack too shallow, jumped in the tallow
Tallow too soft, jumped in the loft
Loft too high, jumped in the sky
Sky too blue, jumped in canoe
Canoe too rotten, jumped in the cotton
Cotton so white she stayed there all night!
(2) As a jump-rope rhyme from Roger D. Abrahams, ed., Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary (University of Texas Press, 1969, pp. 10-11):
Anthy Maria jumped in the fire;
The fire was too hot, she jumped in the pot;
The pot was too black, she jumped in a crack;
The pot was soon over, she jumped in some clover.
Clover's too sweet; she kicked up her feet.
Feet was soon over, she cried 1, 2, 3, jumped in a tree.
The tree was so high she couldn't go higher.
'Long came a breeze, blew her away.

Other versions give different particulars.

Evans (1961), 23 [California].
Worsell (1961), 10-11.
Abrahams oral collection (1962) [Nevis, B.W.I.].