A Hindoo air or natural chanson, that may have been hummed in a pagan temple in the hearing of Mr. Young, was the basis of the little melody since made familiar to millions of prattling tongues.
Such running tone-rhythms create themselves in the instinct of the ruder nations and tribes, and even the South African savages have their incantations with the provincial “clicks” that mark the singers' time. With an ear for native chirrups and trills, the author of our pretty infant-school song succeeded in capturing one, and making a Christian tune of it.
The musician, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, sometime in the eighteen-forties, tried to substitute another melody for the lines, but “There is a happy land” needs its own birth-music.
“I HAVE A FATHER IN THE PROMISED LAND.”
Another cazonet for the infant class. Instead of a hymn, however, it is only a refrain, and—like the ring-chant of the “Hebrew Children,” and even more simple—owes its only variety to the change of one word. The third and fourth lines,—
My father calls me, I must go
To meet Him in the Promised Land,
—take their cue from the first, which may sing,—
I have a Saviour——
I have a mother——