CUMULATIVE PIECES
We now turn to rhymes which dwell on different ideas and present life
under other aspects. In these rhymes there is much on spells, on the
magic properties of numbers, and on sacrificial hunting. A fatalistic
tendency underlies many of these rhymes, and there are conscious efforts
to avert danger.
The different range of ideas which are here expressed is reflected in
the form of verse in which they are presented. While the rhymes hitherto
discussed are set in verse which depends for its consistency on tail
rhyme and assonance, the pieces that deal with the magic properties of
things and with hunting, are mostly set in a form of verse that depends
for its consistency on repetition and cumulation. This difference in
form is probably due to the different origin of these pieces. Rhymed
verse may have originated in dancing and singing--cumulative verse in
recitation and instruction.
In cumulative recitation one sentence is uttered and repeated, a second
sentence is uttered and repeated, then the first sentence is said; a
third sentence is uttered and repeated, followed by the second and the
first. Thus each sentence adds to the piece and carries it back to the
beginning. Supposing each letter to stand for a sentence, the form of
recitation can thus be described: A, a; B, b, a; C, c, b, a; D, d, c, b,
a; etc. This manner of recitation is well known among ourselves, but I
know of no word to designate it. In Brittany the form of recitation is
known as _chant de grénouille_, i.e. frog-chant. A game of forfeits was
known in the eighteenth century, which was called _The Gaping
Wide-mouthed Waddling Frog_, in which the verses were recited in exactly
the same manner. We shall return to it later. A relation doubtless
exists between this game and the French expression frog-chant.
Among our most familiar pieces that are set in cumulative form are _The
Story of the Old Woman and Her Pig_ and _This is the House that Jack
built_. They both consist of narrative, and are told as stories. _This
is the House that Jack built_ first appeared in print as a toy-book that
was issued by Marshall at his printing office, Aldermary Churchyard. It
is illustrated with cuts, and its date is about 1770. Perhaps the story
is referred to in the _Boston News Letter_ (No. 183) of 12-19 April,
1739, in which the reviewer of Tate and Brady's Version of the Psalms
remarks that this "makes our children think of the tune of their vulgar
playsong so like it: this is the man all forlorn." The sentence looks
like a variation of the line "this is the maiden all forlorn" in _This
is the House that Jack built_.
In 1819 there was published in London a satire by Hone, called _The
Political House that Jack built_. It was illustrated by Cruikshank, and
went through fifty-four editions. In form it imitates the playsong,
which was doubtless as familiar then as it is now.
The playsong in the form published by Marshall begins:--
This is the house that Jack built,--
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built,--
This is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack
built,--
which is followed by the cat that killed the rat--the dog that worried
the cat--the cow that tossed the dog--the maiden that milked the
cow--the man that kissed the maid--the priest that married them. Here it
ended. But a further line added by Halliwell (1842, p. 222) mentioned
the cock that crowed on the morn of the wedding-day, and a lady of over
seventy has supplied me with one more line, on the knife that killed the
cock. She tells me that she had the story from her nurse, and that she
does not remember seeing it in print. The version she repeated in
cumulative form, told to me, ended as follows:--
This is the knife with a handle of horn,
that killed the cock that crowed in the morn,
that wakened the priest all shaven and shorn,
that married the man all tattered and torn,
unto the maiden all forlorn,
that milked the cow with a crumpled horn,
that tossed the dog over the barn,
that worried the cat that killed the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house
that Jack built.
The greater part of this piece consists of rhymed verse, and deals with
matters of courtship. The idea of a cock sacrificed on the wedding-day
is certainly heathen in origin, but its introduction forms a new
departure when we come to compare this piece with its foreign parallels
and with the story of _The Old Woman and Her Pig_. These pieces are all
set in the same form, and all introduce a regular sequence of relative
powers.
_The Old Woman and Her Pig_ was first printed by Halliwell (1842, p.
219). It tells how the woman found sixpence, and how she set out for
market, and bought a pig which on the way back refused to jump over the
stile. In order to break the spell that had fallen on it, she summoned
to her aid: dog--stick--fire--water--ox--butcher--rope--rat--cat--cow.
The cow finally gave the milk required by the cat, which set the other
powers going, and thus enabled the woman to get home that night.
Halliwell was impressed by the antiquity of this sequence, and included
in his collection a translation of a Hebrew chant which has considerable
likeness to the tale of _The Old Woman and Her Pig_. This chant is told
in the first person. It begins:--
A kid, a kid my father bought
For two pieces of money,
A kid, a kid.
Then came the cat and ate the kid,
That my father bought,
For two pieces of money.
A kid, a kid. (1842, p. 6.)
It further introduces dog--staff--fire--water--ox--butcher--angel of
death--Holy One.
The Hebrew chant of the kid was printed in Venice as far back as 1609,
and was made the subject of the learned Latin dissertation _De Haedo_ by
Probst von der Hardt in 1727 (R., p. 153). It was again discussed by P.
N. Leberecht in 1731.[51] The chant forms part of the Jewish liturgy,
and is still recited in the original Hebrew or in the vernacular as part
of a religious ceremonial at Easter. Opinions on the origin and the
meaning of the chant differ. One learned rabbi interpreted it as setting
forth how each power in creation is kept within bounds by a power that
stands above it. It teaches how he who goes wrong is at the mercy of one
stronger than himself. But according to another interpretation the
Father who bought the kid was Jehovah himself, the kid was the Hebrew,
the cat represented the Assyrians, the dog the Babylonians, and so
forth; and the whole poem described the position of the Jews at the time
of the Crusades.
[51] The article by Leberecht is in _Der Christliche Reformator_,
Leipzig, 1731, XVII, 28.
The Hebrew chant and its relation to _The Old Woman and her Pig_ engaged
the attention of Professor Tylor, who remarked on the solemn ending of
the Hebrew chant, which according to him may incline us to think that we
really have before us this composition in something like its first form.
"If so," he says, "then it follows that our familiar tale of the Old
Woman who couldn't get the kid (_or_ pig) over the stile, must be
considered as a broken-down adaptation of this old Jewish poem."[52]
[52] Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_, II, 86.
But the tale of the Old Woman taken in conjunction with _This is the
House that Jack built_ and its numerous foreign parallels, shows that
these sequences of relative powers, far from being broken-down
adaptations, are at least as meaningful as the Hebrew chant. For the
underlying conception in all cases is that a spell has fallen on an
object which man is appropriating to his use. The spell extends to
everything, be it man or beast, that comes within the range of its
influence, and the unmaking of the spell necessitates going back step by
step to the point at which it originated.
Halliwell compared a piece current in Denmark with _This is the House
that Jack built_:--
Der har du det haus som Jacob bygde.
"Here hast thou the house that Jacob built."[53]
[53] Halliwell, 1849, p. 6, citing Thiele, II, 3, 146. I cannot find
this book.
Many other versions of this tale are current in Germany and Scandinavia.
In them it is sometimes a question of a house, sometimes of corn,
oftenest of cutting oats or of garnering pears. The cumulative form is
throughout adhered to. One German piece called _Ist alles verlorn_, "all
is lost," begins:--
Es kam eine Maus gegangen
In unser Kornehaŭs,
Die nahm das Korn gefangen,
In ŭnserm Kornehaŭs.
Die Maus das Korn,
Ist alles verlorn
In ŭnserm Kornehaŭs. (Sim., p. 256.)
"There came a mouse into our corn-house, she seized the corn in our
corn-house. The mouse, the corn, now all is lost in our corn-house."
The other powers are rat, cat, fox, wolf, bear, man, maid. This piece,
like _This is the House that Jack built_, ends abruptly.
Among the less primitive variations of the tale is one recorded in
Sonneberg (S., p. 102), and another in the north of France, which both
substitute the name of Peter for that of Jack, that is a Christian name
for a heathen one. In France the piece is called _La Mouche_, literally
"the fly," but its contents indicate that not _mouche_ but the Latin
_mus_ (mouse) was originally meant. The tale departs from the usual
form, and has a refrain:--
Voici la maison que Pierre a bâtie,
Il sortait un rat de sa raterie,
Qui fit rentrer la mouch' dans sa moucherie:
Rat à mouche,
Belle, belle mouche
Jamais je n'ai vu si belle mouche. (D.B., p. 116.)
"This is the house that Peter built. A rat came out of a rat-hole,
and made the fly go into the fly-hole. Rat to fly, lovely fly, never
saw I so lovely a fly."
The other powers are dog, bear, man, maid, abbot, pope, devil.
The same tale is told in Austria (V., p. 113), and in Prussia (F., p.
197), where it is called _Das Haus vom hölzernen Mann_, "the house of
the wooden Man." In Prussia it is recited as a game of forfeits. The
sequence of the powers in the one version is house, door, lock, band,
mouse, cat, dog, stick, fire, water, ox, butcher, devil; and in the
other, house, door, lock, band, mouse, cat, huntsman.
Jack in Germany is called Jockel, Jöggeli, Jokele. _The Master who sent
out Jockel_ is mentioned already in the Gargantua of Fischart, which was
published in 1575 (Chap. XXV.). The name Jack among ourselves is applied
to a person or an object of peculiar serviceableness, as in
Jack-of-all-trades, or boot-jack. But in Germany the expression "to
send Jockel on an errand" implies that this will never get done.
In Vogtland the current nursery version of this piece begins:--
Es schickt der Herr den Gȏkel 'naus,
Er soll den Haber schneiden. (Du., p. 35.)
"The master sent out Gokel to cut oats."
As he failed to come back, dog, fire, water, ox, butcher, hangman,
devil, were sent after him.
In Swabia Jokele (Br., p. 44), and in Switzerland Joggeli, was sent to
knock off pears on which a spell had fallen. The chant in Zürich has
been traced back to the year 1769, and it begins:--
Es ist ein Baum im Gärtle hinne,
d' Birren wänd nüd fallen.
Do schückt de Bur de Joggeli usen
Er soll di Birren schütteln. (R., p. 155.)
"There is a tree in the garden, its pears will not drop. The peasant
sent out Joggeli to knock them off."
But the pears refused to be knocked off, and the usual sequence of
powers was sent to secure them.
The tale of Jack was current in Münster in Westphalia also, where it was
taken over by the Church, and annually recited at the religious
procession which took place on the eve of the feast of St. Lambert, 17
September. This was done as late as the year 1810 (R., p. 155). The
recitation was followed or accompanied by a dance, the purpose of which
is not recorded. Perhaps the procession stood in relation to the actual
garnering of pears, and the tale was recited in order to secure a good
harvest. In this case not Jack, but _der Jäger_, "the huntsman," was
dispatched to knock the pears off, and the sequence of powers included
dog, stick, fire, water, calf, butcher, hangman, devil.
This adoption by the Church of the sequence of powers shows that we have
to do with the remains of a heathen ritual, which found its way into a
Christian celebration, as the tale of the kid found its way into the
Easter celebration of the Jewish Church. In both instances the sequence
of relative powers is preserved, and in both it is question of making an
object secure for the use of man.
The same sequence of powers is preserved also in the traditional game
that is known as _Dump_ among ourselves (1894, I, 117; II, 419), and as
_Club Fist_ in America (N., p. 134). In this game it is also a question
of building a house, and of knocking off pears. The action of the
players, however, stands in no obvious relation to the words that are
used. Sometimes three, sometimes a number of lads, crowd together and
place their fists sideways one on the other, till they form a pile of
clenched hands. The last boy, who has a fist free, knocks off the fists
one by one, saying:--
(In Yorkshire) What's this?--(Answer) Dump.
(In America) What's that?--(Answer) A pear.
Take it off or I'll knock it off.
In Shropshire all sing together:--
I've built my house, I've built my wall;
I don't care where my chimneys fall.
When all the fists are knocked down, the following dialogue ensues:--
What's there?--Cheese and bread and a mouldy half-penny.
Where's my share?--I put it on the shelf, and the cat got it.
Where's the cat?--She's run nine miles through the wood.
Where's the wood?--T' fire burnt it.
Where's the fire?--T' water sleckt it.
Where's the water?--T' ox drunk it.
Where's the ox?--T' butcher killed 'em.
Where's the butcher?--Upon the church-top cracking nuts, and you may
go and eat the shells; and _them as_ speak first shall have nine
nips, nine scratches, and nine boxes on the ear. (1849, p. 128.)
Silence falls, all try not to laugh, and he who first allows a word to
escape him, is punished by the others in the methods adopted by
schoolboys. In the Scottish game the punishment is described as "nine
nips, nine nobs, nine double douncornes, and a good blow on the back."
In France the same game is known as _Le Pied de Bœuf_, "the foot of the
ox," and a scramble of fists starts at the words:--
Neuf, je tiens mon pied de bœuf. (Mo., p. 351.)
"Nine, I hold my ox's foot";
the number nine in this case being also mentioned.
The meting out of punishments by nines goes far back in history. It was
associated with a Yule-tide sport which is still practised in Denmark
and in Schleswig, and is known as _Ballerrune_ or _Balderrune_. Every
member of the assembled company repeated a formula on "Balder Rune and
his wife," and he who made a mistake received nine blows, as in our
game. The custom was explained by the legend that the god Balder,
incensed at his wife's loquacity, chastised her by giving her nine
blows, and ordered that this should be repeated every year, so that
women be reminded that it is their duty to be silent when their husbands
speak (H., p. 44).
In the game of _Dump_ also, it is the person who speaks first that is
punished, but there is nothing to suggest that this was a woman, for the
game is essentially a boys' game.
The story of _The Woman and her Pig_ (_or Kid_), like that of Jack, is
told over a wide geographical area. In the Scottish version the woman
lived in a wee house and found two pennies and bought a kid. On coming
home she saw a bush and wished to pull off its berries, and could not.
She set the kid to watch the house, and went to seek the help of dog,
stick, fire, water, ox, axe, smith, rope, mouse, cat, milk, in her hope
of breaking the spell that had fallen on the bush. Each animal or object
refused "to do the next one harm, saying that it never did it any harm
itself"; but the cat finally could not resist the temptation of lapping
the milk (1870, p. 57). Thus the tale introduced a moral element which
is not found elsewhere.
In Sweden the tale of _The Old Woman and her Pig_ is called _Konen och
Grisen Fick_, "the woman and her pig Fick," and the pig refused to leave
off eating acorns. A similar tale is called _Gossen och Geten Näppa_,
"the lad and the kid Näppa," (1849, p. 6). In Elsass the pig is called
_Schnirrchele_ (St., p. 93), in Transylvania it is _Mischka_ or
_Bitschki_ (Sch., p. 372). And a version from the north of France tells
how _Biquette_ got into a cabbage-patch from which stick, fire, water,
were summoned to expel her. _Biquette_ is described as a kid (D., p.
122). In Languedoc _Biquette_ reappears as _Bouquaire-Bouquil_, who is
furnished with horns and does havoc in a millet-field from which he is
expelled with the help of wolf, dog, stick, fire, water, ox, rope (M.
L., p. 538). In all cases the animal is one that is provided with horns.
Millet is one of the oldest cereals that were cultivated in Europe, the
displacement of which by the cultivation of corn had begun in England
when Pytheas visited these shores in the fourth century B.C. Can the
"malt" of _This is the House that Jack built_ stand for millet?
A French piece is current in Remiremont which is called _Le Conjurateur
et le Loup_, "the magician and the wolf." It describes the contest
between them, and shows that the making and unmaking of spells is
involved:--
L'y a un loup dedans le bois,
Le loup ne veut pas sortir du bois.
Ha, j' te promets, compèr' Brocard,
Tu sortiras de ce lieu-là. (R., p. 152.)
"There is a wolf in the wood, the wolf will not come out of the
wood. Ha, I promise you, brother Brocard, you will soon come out."
And the magician summons to his assistance stick, fire, water, calf,
butcher, devil, which help him to expel the wolf.
Even more primitive than this tale is one current in Languedoc, in which
a spell has fallen on a root or turnip, which is finally raised by the
hog. It begins: "The old woman went into the garden in order to pull out
a turnip. When the old man saw that the old woman did not come back, he
went into the garden and saw the old woman pulling at the turnip. The
old man pulled at the old woman, the old woman pulled at the turnip, but
the turnip stuck fast." They were followed by daughter-in-law, son, man,
maid, and so forth, including the cat and the rat. Finally the hog came
to the rescue. Instead of pulling like the others, he attacked the
turnip from below, and by doing so he succeeded in raising it, otherwise
the spell would continue, "and the root would still be holding fast" (M.
L., p. 541).
The comparison of these various tales or pieces shows that dog, stick,
fire, water, ox, butcher, form a sequence of powers that was accepted
over a wide geographical area. They were invoked wherever it was
question of breaking a spell that had fallen on a coveted object, the
object including pigs, pears, oats, berries, millet, and roots. These
are products that were prized in Europe from a remote period in
antiquity. As the products are primitive, so probably is the form of
verse in which the story is told of their being made fast. For the same
form of verse is used in a further class of pieces to which we now turn,
and which, by their contents, betray a pre-Christian origin.