XVI.
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.)