Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 21

L'enfant: La tete de l'ane signifie la grosse cloche et la langue fait le battant de cette grosse cloche qui est dans le clocher de la cathedrale des saints patrons de notre ville. (B. I., p. 65.)

"The priest: What do the ears of the a.s.s stand for?--The child: The ears of the a.s.s stand for the two great patron saints of our city.--The priest: What does the head stand for?--The head stands for the great bell, and the tongue for the clapper of the great bell which is in the belfry of the cathedral of the holy saints, the patrons of our city."

We then read of the throat which stands for the entrance to the cathedral--the body for the cathedral itself--the four legs, its pillars--the heart and liver, its great lamps--the belly, its alms-box--the tail which stands for the aspergill--the hide which stands for the cope of the priest--and the hole which stands for the holy-water stoup.

This chant on the parts of the a.s.s is among the most curious survivals.

At first one feels inclined to look upon it as intended to convey ridicule, but this idea is precluded by the existence of _The Robin's Testament_, and by the numerous pieces which enumerate the several parts of the bird in connection with the bird sacrifice. Again in this case we are led to look upon the piece as a garbled survival of some heathen form of ritual. The a.s.s, however, was not known in Western Europe till a comparatively late period in history. It has no common Aryan name, and the question therefore arises how it can have come to be a.s.sociated with what is obviously a heathen form of ritual.

Mannhardt, with regard to German folk-lore, pointed out that the a.s.s was subst.i.tuted in many places for the hare, which was tabu, and with which it shared the peculiarity of having long ears. This subst.i.tution was favoured by their likeness of name: _heselin_, _heselken_. (M., p.

412.)

We are led to inquire if the a.s.s in Western Europe can have taken the place of another animal also, and we find ourselves confronted with the following facts:--

_d.i.c.ky_ among ourselves is applied to a bird, especially to a caged (?

perhaps a sacrificial) bird; the word d.i.c.ky is also widely applied to an a.s.s, properly to a he-a.s.s.[1] The a.s.s is often called by nicknames exactly like the small wild birds: Jack-a.s.s, Betty-a.s.s, Jenny-a.s.s, in form closely correspond to Jack-daw, Magpie, and Jenny Wren of the feathered tribe. The word Jack-a.s.s moreover is applied both to the four-footed beast and to a member of the feathered tribe. Nicknames probably originated in the desire to conceal a creature's true ident.i.ty.

In Scotland the word _cuddy_ again stands both for an a.s.s and for some kinds of bird, including the hedge-sparrow and the moor-hen.[71] The word cuddy is said to be short for Cuthbert, but it seems to be related also to cutty, an adjective applied to the wren (cf. above, p. 176, 193), the derivation and meaning of which are uncertain.

[71] Murray's Dictionary: _d.i.c.ky_, _cuddy_, _a.s.s_, _Jacka.s.s_.

The same overlapping of terms exists in France, where the a.s.s is popularly called Martin (Ro., IV, 206, 223, 233), while the feathered martins include the _martin pecheur_, kingfisher, the _martin rose_, goatsucker, and the _martinets_ (Ro., II, p. 70). In Germany also, where no bird-chants are recorded, as far as I am aware, the expression _Martinsvogel_ is applied to a bird of augury of uncertain ident.i.ty, sometimes to the redbreast (Gr., p. 946). And a current proverb has it, _Es ist mehr als ein Esel der Martin heisst_, "he is more than an a.s.s who is called Martin." (Ro., IV, 233.) In Barmen boys parade the streets on the eve of St. Martin's Day, asking for contributions, and, if they receive nothing, they sing:--

Maten ist ein Esel, der zieht die Kuh am Besel. (B., p. 363.)

"Martin is an a.s.s, he pulls the cow by the tail," that is, "he has no money in his purse."

These various survivals support the view that the a.s.s in Western Europe somehow got mixed up with the birds. When and how this came about is difficult to tell. The representatives of Christianity were in a position to accept the feast of the a.s.s, since the a.s.s figured largely in the Old and the New Testaments. But we do not know if they consciously did so, and introduced the a.s.s in the place of another animal, or if they took over an animal which had before their time been accepted in the place of a bird.

CHAPTER XVII

THE ROBIN AND THE WREN

One side of the subject remains to be discussed. It is the relation of the robin to the wren. Many custom rhymes, legends, and nursery pieces name the birds together, and they sometimes enlarge on the jealousy of the birds, and on the fact that their presence was reckoned mutually exclusive. Perhaps the birds, looked at from one point of view, were accounted the representatives of the seasons, and, as such, came and went by turns.

The robin and the wren are mentioned together in several custom rhymes, some of which mention other birds also:--

The robin redbreast and the wren Are G.o.d's c.o.c.k and hen. (1826, p. 292.)

In Warwicks.h.i.+re they say:--

The robin and the wren Are G.o.d Almighty's c.o.c.k and hen; The martin and the swallow Are G.o.d Almighty's bow and arrow. (1870, p. 188.)

In Lancas.h.i.+re this takes the form:--

The robin and the wren are G.o.d's c.o.c.k and hen; The spink and the sparrow are the de'il's bow and arrow.

(1892, p. 275.)

This a.s.sociation of the sparrow with the bow and arrow reappears in some nursery pieces, as we shall see later.

The robin and the wren are coupled together also in the following rhyme from Scotland, which has found its way into some modern English nursery collections:--

The robin redbreast and the wran Coost out about the parritch pan; And ere the robin got a spune The wran she had the parritch dune. (1870, p. 188.)

_The Robin's Testament_ already quoted concludes with anger on the part of the robin at the entrance of the wren, whose appearance heralds his death. Other pieces describe the inverse case, when the wren dies in spite of the robin's efforts to keep her alive. This conception forms the subject of a Scottish ballad called _The Birds' Lamentation_, which is included in the collection of David Herd of the year 1776. It contains the following lines:--

The Wren she lyes in Care's bed, in meikle dule and pyne, O!

Quhen in came Robin Red-breast wi' sugar saps and wine, O!

--Now, maiden will ye taste o' this?--It's sugar saps and wine, O!

Na, ne'er a drap, Robin, (I wis); gin it be ne'er so fine, O!

--Ye're no sae kind's ye was yestreen, or sair I hae mistae'n, O!

Ye're no the la.s.s, to pit me by, and bid me gang my lane, O!

And quhere's the ring that I gied ye, ye little cutty quean, O!

--I gied it till an ox-ee [tomt.i.t], a kind sweat-heart o' myne, O!

The same incidents are related of real birds in the toy-book called _The Life and Death of Jenny Wren_, which was published by Evans in 1813 "for the use of young ladies and gentlemen:--

A very small book at a very small charge, To teach them to read before they grow large."

The story begins:--

Jenny Wren fell sick upon a merry time, In came Robin Redbreast and brought her sops and wine; Eat well of the sop, Jenny, drink well of the wine.

Thank you Robin kindly, you shall be mine.

The wren recovered for a time, but her behaviour was such as to rouse the robin's jealousy. She finally died, and the book concludes with the lines:--

Poor Robin long for Jenny grieves, At last he covered her with leaves.

Yet near the place a mournful lay For Jenny Wren sings every day.

It was an ancient superst.i.tion that the robin took charge of the dead, especially of those who died by inadvertence.

The proposed union of the robin and the wren forms the subject also of a story that was taken down from the recitation of Mrs. Begg, the sister of the poet Burns. She was under the impression that her brother invented it. It describes how the robin started on Yule morning to sing before the king, and of the dangers, in the form of Poussie Baudrons, of the grey greedy gled, of Tod Lowrie, and of others, he encountered by the way. He sang before the king and queen, who gave him the wee wren to wed. Then he flew away and sat on a briar (1870, p. 60). There is no sequel.

In all these stories the wren is described not as a c.o.c.k-bird, but as a hen-bird, which is incompatible with the idea of kings.h.i.+p that is expressed by the bird-chants. Perhaps the idea of the kings.h.i.+p is the older one. For in the legend told in the Isle of Man as an explanation of the custom of killing the wren, this bird is described as a fairy, that is, of the female s.e.x, and legends that are intended to account for a custom are necessarily of a more recent date than the custom which they explain. The wren in Normandy also is sometimes spoken of as a hen-bird, _La poulette du bon Dieu_, G.o.d Almighty's hen. One custom-rhyme current in Scotland directly a.s.sociates the bird with the Lady of Heaven:--

Malisons, Malisons, mair than tens, That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen. (1870, p. 186.)

There is another toy-book relating the proposed union of the robin and the wren, which leads up to the death of the robin. It is called _The Courts.h.i.+p, Marriage, and Picnic Dinner of c.o.c.k Robin and Jenny Wren_, and was first issued by Harris in 1810. In this book other animals took part in the ceremony. The c.o.c.k blew the horn, the parson rook carried Mother Hubbard's book, the lark sang, the linnet, the bullfinch, and the blackbird all officiated. A picnic dinner followed, to which the raven brought walnuts, the dog Tray brought a bone, the owl brought a sack of wheat, the pigeon brought tares, and so forth. The enjoyment was at its height--

When in came the cuckoo and made a great rout, He caught hold of Jenny and pulled her about.

c.o.c.k robin was angry and so was the sparrow, Who now is preparing his bow and his arrow.

His aim then he took, but he took it not right, His skill was not good, or he shot in a fright, For the cuckoo he missed, but c.o.c.k robin he killed, And all the birds mourned that his blood was so spilled.

The cuckoo, it will be remembered, was the bird of the G.o.d Thor, and the enemy of matrimonial bliss.