The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #44133   Message #649291
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
13-Feb-02 - 03:01 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Buckeye Jim - other odd lullabies
Subject: RE: Buckeyed Jim: Oddest lullaby I've heard
Similar form here.
De raccoon up a gum stump, de possum in de holler,
De squirel in de pine stump, As fat as he can wallow.

Possum in gum stump, Cooney in the hollow,
Work snake and juny bug and I'll give you half a dollar.

Chicken in the bread tray, scratching out dough;
Sally will your dog bite? No, child, no.

Away down yonder in the forks of the branch
The jaybird whistled and the buzzard danced.

De old cow died in de head of the branch,
De jay birds whistled and de buzzards danced.

'Way down yonder and a long way off,
Jaybird died wid der whoopin' cough.

Way down yonder in Pasquotank
Bull frog jumped from bank to bank.

Way up yonder on the old green lake
The bull frog died with the belly ache.

Banjo goes, "Ker-blank, kerblank"
Spring frog holler "Yankete-yank."
Bull frog jump from bank to bank
Skinned his nose on a hick'ry plank.

Some of the little rhymes from N. I White, American Negro Folk Songs. A lot of resemblance to the nonsense verses of Old Dan Tucker, and some of the rhymes in Joel Chandler Harris Bre'r Rabbit books and songs.