Thanks for the posts thus far to this thread. I find all of them very interesting.

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Joe F, would you please provide more information about the "Baby, baby, naughty baby" example. Is this a UK rhyme? How old is it? Does it date from [Napoleon] Bonaparte's time. Needless to say, I'm struck by the reference to the giant/monster being "Tall and black as Rouen steeple". I suppose it would be digressing to ask for other examples of bad, scary, boogieman characters being Black [or dressed in Black] in English children's rhymes and the rest of English & American culture for that matter. On another Mudcat thread I learned about the Black character who accompanies Saint Nickolas and gives out stones or ashes, but I can't recall his name {is it Black Peter?}That's someone related though I guess that character's role isn't as scary as the threat of the giant's action in that "naughty baby rhyme".

But, I digress.