Said he, "All my stock You shall presently see; For I honor the cats Of Dame Wiggins of Lee." He sent his maid out For some muffins and crumpets; Or this ne'er could be borne To show them his poultry, For the care of his lamb, At their Dame's welcome door; And sit down with me; 144 This is the perfect pattern of all the accumulative stories, perhaps the best known and most loved of children among all nursery jingles. Halliwell thought it descended from the mystical Hebrew hymn, “A kid, a "Then came the cat, and ate the kid, That my father bought," etc. Then came the dog and bit the cat, then the staff and beat the dog, then the fire and burned the staff, then water and quenched the fire, then the ox and drank the water, then the butcher and slew the ox, then the angel of death and killed the butcher, and the hymn concludes: "Then came the Holy One, blessed be He! That bit the cat, That my father bought A kid, a kid." There is an elaborate interpretation of the symbolism of this hymn, going back at least as far as 1731, in which the kid denotes the Hebrews, the father is Jehovah, the cat is the Assyrians, the dog is the Babylonians, the staff is the Persians, the fire is Greece under Alexander, the water is the Roman Empire, the ox is the Saracens, the butcher is the crusaders, the angel of death is the Turkish power, while the concluding accumulation shows that God will take vengeance on the enemies of the chosen people. This is the interpretation in barest outline only. Without the key no one would ever guess its hidden meaning. Fortunately, "The House That Jack Built" has no such horn, hidden meaning. But the important point | That milked the cow with the crumpled is that such accumulative stories are almost as old as human records, and, like so many other possessions of the race, seem to have come to us from the Far East. THIS IS THE HOUSE 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. This is the cat, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the dog, That worried the cat, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the cow with the crumpled horn, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the maiden all forlorn, That milked the cow with the crumpled horn, That tossed the dog, That worried the cat, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the man all tattered and torn, That kissed the maiden all forlorn, That tossed the dog, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the priest all shaven and shorn, That married the man all tattered and torn, That kissed the maiden all forlorn, That milked the cow with the crumpled horn, That tossed the dog, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the cock that crowed in the morn, That waked the priest all shaven and shorn, That married the man all tattered and torn, That kissed the maiden all forlorn, That tossed the dog, That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the farmer sowing his corn, morn, That waked the priest all shaven and shorn, That married the man all tattered and torn, That kissed the maiden all forlorn, horn, And you must reel the spool of yarn, The old woman took a staff in her hand, The old man took a pail in his hand, And went to milk the cow; And Tidy gave him such a blow, That the blood ran down to his toes. High! Tidy! ho! Tidy! high! Tidy! do stand still; If ever I milk you, Tidy, again, "Twill be sore against my will! He went to feed the little pigs And he forgot the spool of yarn So he swore by the sun, the moon, and the stars, And the green leaves on the tree, "If my wife does n't do a day's work in her life, She shall ne'er be ruled by me." |