Frog in er Mill
This is probably an adaptation of one of the Froggie Would a Wooing Go songs, the oldest of which was first seen in print in 1611. These songs concern the courting of a mouse by a frog. Usually, the mouse lives in a mill, and sometimes the frog lives in a well.
Frog in er Mill
Frog in a Mill
Nursery Rhyme
Nursery Rhyme
(Historical Black American English)
(English)
Once dere wus er frog dat lived in er mill.
He had er raker don la bottom o' la kimebo
Kimebo, nayro, dilldo, kiro
Stimstam, formididdle, all-a-board la rake;
Wid er raker don la bottom o' la kimebo.
Once there was a frog that lived in a mill.
He had a raker* down at the bottom of the kimebo**
Kimebo, nayro, dilldo, kiro
Stimstam, formididdle**, all-a-board the rake*;
With the raker down at the bottom of the kimebo.
Notes
*Rake (and most likely raker) refer to parts of the machinery of the mill.
**This all seems to be nonsense: "Kimebo, nayro, dilldo, kiro
Stimstam, formididdle".
*****
I felt the comment below was interesting to post. Please remember the language is from 1922.
Thomas W. Talley, an African American scholar, who collected this rhyme in his book Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise (1922), wrote that this rhyme, came from people he called…
"...'Ebo' Negroes and 'Guinea' Negroes. The so-called 'Ebo' Negro used the word 'la' very largely for the word 'the.' This and some other things have caused me to think that the 'Ebo' Negro was probably one who was first a slave among the French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and was afterwards sold to an English-speaking owner. Thus his language was a mixture of African, English, and one of these languages. The so-called 'Guinea' Negro was simply one who had not been long from Africa; his language being a mixture of his African tongue and English."
Thanks and Acknowledgements
This rhyme can be found in Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise, with a Study by Thomas W. Talley of Fisk University (1922).
Standard English version by Lisa Yannucci.
