I FOUGHT A FIERCE HYENA
(Percy French)

I've fought a fierce hyena,
He was just as high as high!
    So have I, so have I!
    Mine was higher than the sky.
Only fancy killing something that was higher than the sky.

I have killed a hipperpotomus
Much bigger than a wall.
    Is that all? That was small,
    Mine was nearly twice as tall.
Just fancy killing something that was nearly twice as tall.
I know you don't believe me,
That is plain enough to see,
But once I killed a beetle,
And I've often killed a bee.
They know we don't believe them,
That is plain enough to see,
But once they've killed a beetle,
And they've often killed a bee.

I killed a dreadful dragon
That drank up the Forth of Firth.
    So did mine, so did mine!
    He just swallowed up the earth.
Only fancy killing something that could swallow up the earth.

I have killed a great sea-serpent,
Yes, I killed it with an axe.
    I killed six, with some bricks,
    And a bit of cobbler's wax.
How clever to kill serpents with a bit of cobbler's wax.

I know you don't believe me, etc...

I only use a pop-gun
When I kill a tiger-cat.
    I killed mine with some twine -
    Just about as long as that.
Killing tiger-cats with pop-guns and a string as long as that.

I was fishing off an ice-berg,
And I caught an 'normous whale.
    I caught five, all alive,
    And I keep them in a pail.
How wonderful to keep 'normous fishes in a pail.
I know you don't believe me, etc...

#42 in The Songs of Percy French, selected and edited by James N. Healy (Ossian Press, 1996)

Two numbers from Freda and the Fairies, a delightful miniature 'opera' suitable for children of junior school, with music by Caroline Maude (Viscountess Hawarden), and some of the lyrics by Cecily Fox-Smith. The first number seems to speak up against cruelty to animals, and the second to foreshadow by many years 'I can do anything' from Annie Get Your Gun.