This group contains sequence-songs,
or number-songs, like the popular German Zaehllieder,
though not all are necessarily sung, but rather are
spoken. The first one below would seem to be akin
to the various cabala of the German Pietists of Pennsylvania.
[TWELVE APOSTLES], as follows:
Twelve, twelve apostles,
Eleven, eleven, I went
to heaven,
Ten, ten, commandments,
Nine bright lights a-shining,
Eight Gabel [Gabriel?]
angels,
Seven stars a-hanging
high,
Six, six go acymord,
Five all alone abroard,
Four scorn in Wackford,
Three of them are drivers,
Two of them are little
lost babes,
Oh, my dear Savior,
One, one is left alone,
One to be left alone.
CLUB-FIST: A series of questions
and answers concerning the fire, water, ox, butcher,
rope, rat, cat, etc. each of which
terms is destructive of the preceding one. (Spoken.)
JOHN BROWN’S LITTLE INDIANS:
An enumeration of his “Indians” from unity
upward, and thence back to unity again.
THE UNLUCKY YOUNG MAN, ii, 4aa and
4aaa3b, 13ca: He exchanges oxen for a cow,
the cow for a calf, the calf for a dog, the dog for
a cat, the cat for a rat, the rat for a mouse, which
“took fire to her tail and burned down the house.”
OLD SAM SUCK-EGG, ii, 2aa, 10:
He swaps his wife for a duck-egg, and this for other
commodities in turn, which rime with each preceding
line, until he has lost all. (Spoken.)
[I BOUGHT ME A HORSE], 4aa and cumulative
refrain of animal cries: In each couplet a new
purchase of some common animal or fowl is made, while
each succeeding refrain gathers up cumulative-fashion
the cries made by each succeeding addition to the
collection.
ONE, TWO, COME BUCKLE MY SHOE, 2aa,
10: A sequence of riming half-lines, each containing
a digit up to twenty. (Spoken.)