Scottish kids' song on the Boer War

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Scottish kids' song on the Boer War

23 Mar 26 - 07:22 PM (#4237240)
Subject: Scottish kids' song on the Boer War
From: Jack Campin

This weird little song is from an artistically designed collection of Scottish children's songs and rhymes from 1932. Nancy Rumbel the ocarina/doublereed player put me on to it.

'Boo'ers'
  
  Barnum and Bayley
  Had a canary,
  Whustled 'The Cock i' the North.'
  It whustled for hoors
  And frightened the Booers
  And they a' fell into the Forth.
     B for Booer
     K for Krudger
     J for General French.
  The Bri'ish were up at the top of the hill
  And the Booers were down in the trench.


  Sister Mary had a canary
  Whustled 'The Cock o' the North.'
  It whustled for hoors & frightened the Booers,
  And won the Victoria Cross.

X:1 T:'Booers' M:12/8 L:1/8 K:G B2B BAG GAB e2d|B2B BAG A3 z2d| B2B BAG GBd e2d|dgB AGA G6| g2d e2d g2d e2d|B2B BAG A3 d2c| B2B BAG BGd e2d|dgB AGA G6|| Notes at the end of the book: Nicht at Eenie the Bairns' Parnassus with wood-engravings BY IAIN MACNAB Samson Press: 1932 The book was printed by J.M. Shelmerdine and F. Grierson at the Samson Press, Stuart's Hill Cottage Warlingham, Surrey, and finished in August 1932. The illustrations were printed from wood-engravings by Iain MacNab, & the tunes from line-blocks designed by J.M.Shelmerdine, who is also responsible for the composition & press-work. The type is Goudy Modern. 170 copies were printed, numbers 1 to 150 being for general sale and the rest for presentation. This is number 169.

24 Mar 26 - 03:16 AM (#4237250)
Subject: RE: Scottish kids' song on the Boer War
From: r.padgett

The Boers have got my Daddy
My soldier Dad.
I don’t like to hear my Mammy sigh
I don’t like to see my Mammy cry
So I am going on a big ship To cross the raging main
I am going to fight the Boers l am
And bring my Daddy back again.

from Mick Haywood's miscellany

Ray

24 Mar 26 - 05:13 AM (#4237256)
Subject: RE: Scottish kids' song on the Boer War
From: Robert B. Waltz

There are a number of children's songs that mention the Boer War, the most famous of course being "Marching to Pretoria" (which began as a soldiers' song but became a children's song). My gut feeling is Ulster is the biggest source (from the memories of Alice Kane, e.g.).

My personal favorite was one that Oliver Sacks somehow learned,

One, two, three, relief of Kimberley
Four, five, six, relief of Ladysmith
Seven, eight, nine, relief of Bloemfontein.

And then there are music hall songs like "The Baby's Name":

The War, the War, the blooming war, has turned my wife insane,
From Kruger to Majuba she's the Transvaal on the brain....

Is there something in particular that people are seeking about the war?

25 Mar 26 - 06:56 PM (#4237349)
Subject: RE: Scottish kids' song on the Boer War
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar

It is interesting that much of the 'Nicht At Eeenie' 1932 material, including unusual musical transcripts, turns up again in 1942 in the Montgomeries' 'Scottish Nursery Rhymes' collection.

In 1992 I got in a care home in Stonehouse
Auntie Mary had a canary
Up the leg of her drawers
It whistled for oors and frightened the Boers
And won the Victoria Cross.

A 1993 newspaper account of our current king's visit to a ceilidh on Islay tells that he he 'recited his party piece learned from his Scottish grannie' - exactly the same text as I got in Stonehouse.
I give five pages to variants of Auntie Mary and her canary in my book 'Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee'.

I think there was a lot of discussion awhile ago on Mudcat about another apparent Boer War song 'Hold him down, you Swazi Warrior'

25 Mar 26 - 07:02 PM (#4237351)
Subject: RE: Scottish kids' song on the Boer War
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar

Yes, lots of hits here on Mudcat but for 'Zulu Warrior', but my father sang 'Hold im down you Swazi warrior, hold im down you Zulu chief'. I expect I gave his whole text in here somewhere, beginning 'I Zigga Zumba'.

25 Mar 26 - 07:04 PM (#4237352)
Subject: RE: Scottish kids' song on the Boer War
From: Robert B. Waltz

Ewan McVicar wrote, "Hold him down, you Swazi Warrior."

I hope the thread condemned it, given its attitudes. If the thread didn't say so, Josef Marais rewrote and softened it as "The Zulu Warrior." Which, astonishingly, seems to have made it to oral tradition in a small way; Averill's Camp Songs Folk Songs cites it several times, and Derek Piotr picked up a fragment.