1. Alice-in-Wonderland's "Dinah" came from "Villikins and his Dinah" ("Villikins" as in Sam Weller's father's pronunciation) which was still in singbooks till the 1940s, but even in the colonies, "Dinah" did hve US-"coloured" overtones for some time. Wasn't the Bobbsey Twins' cook, who spoke in minstrelsy-diction right up to the end of the 1960s, caled that? (For thread drift: there is a Parsee [Zoroastrian] name" Dina", which in the interests of being whitened up mutated via "Dinah" to "Diana", asdid their "Rodah" into "Rhoda.]

2. A medley that still *looks* and *feels* like a medley is different in kind from something that started off as a medley, but then, consciously or by thoughtless association of similar diction/rhythm, became a homogenous unit (i.e. seen/thought to be such), despite any visible-upon-inspection fissures between parts (different "Dinahs" in consecutive sections). No?

3. If anyone is interested, there was an "Archie" comic in the 1960s in which the boys "working on the railroad" and singing the song, was depicted as them playing with a toy railway.

[4. If any expert on black-and-white minstrel images can give me pointers to illustrations, US or UK, which specifically resemble those in the work of Helen Bannerman, I would be most grateful, but pls PM me. I do not want to muddy this thread or introduce non-music into it.]

Sanjay Sircar