|
Snake Baked A Hoecake
Old-time song and rhyme; minstrel era
ARTIST: Lyrics from various sources
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Early 1800’s; The rhyme appears in the 1802 book, "The prairie Scout, or Agatone the renegade" by Charles Wilkins Webber. The rhyme was used in various minstrel era songs.
RECORDING INFO: Richardson, Ethel Park / American Mountain Songs, Greenberg, Bk (1927/1955), p104 (Wake Snakes)
Nelson, Mag. Solomon, Jack & Olivia (eds.) / Sweet Bunch of Daisies, Colonial Press, Bk (1991), p216 [1938ca]
Raven, Nancy. Lullabies and Other Children's Songs, Pacific Cascade LPL 7007, LP (1969), trk# B.04
Richards, Ebe (Mr.). Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p346/# 238 [1918/08/18]
Stecher, Jody. Snake Baked A Hoecake: Jody Stecher and Friends, Bay 203, LP (1974), trk# 6
OTHER NAMES: Hodi Cake
SOURCES: Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). Lovell, Henry. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p138 Ware, John. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 89a (Pruitt).
NOTES: The rhyme appears in the 1802 book, "The Prairie Scout, or Agatone the Renegade" by Charles Wilkins Webber. The rhyme was used in various minstrel era songs.
The title song from Jody Stecher’s debut album, c. mid-1970’s. A hoecake or johnnycake (also Hodi cake) is a food item that dates to the early 1700’s and is thought to be a precursor of the modern pancake. The ingridients were cornmeal, salt and either boiling water or cold milk. In modern times johnnycakes are also made with eggs, oil or melted butter and leavening (e.g. baking powder). Some bake these in the oven rather than on a griddle, more like traditional cornbread. An old rhyme and singing game called “Snake Baked a Hoecake” has various creatures appearing.
Snake bake a hoecake,
And lef' a frog to mind it
Frog went away, an'
De lizard come and find it.
Snake Baked a Hoecake: 1860
Snake baked a hoe-cake,
Left a frog to watch it;
Frog went to sleep,
Lizard come and cotch it. — Virginia Negro Song.
--Dictionary of Americanisms by John Russell Bartlett (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860)
A Gallop among American Scenery 1881
Snake baked a hoe cake, asked de frog to mind it.
De frog he fell asleep, and de lizard came and stol'd it.
CHORUS: Ruberree, ceder bree, heigho Juba!
De snake began to beat de lizard. De lizard he denied it,
And de frog said ye did, for I seed ye when ye stol'd it.
CHORUS: Ruberree, ceder bree, heigho Juba!
Alligator in de swamp catching de old gander....
--A Gallop among American Scenery by Augustus Ely Silliman (New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1881)
Deadwood soundtrack: Music From HBO Original Series:
Snake baked a hoecake
and he set Frog to watch it.
but Froggie fell to napping
and Lizard came and took it
Bring back my hoecake!
You long-tailed nonny!
Jean Ritchie: This was a little funny rhyme one said to children (trotting them on the knee,or dancing them two-handed about the floor):
Snake baked a hoe-cake
Set a frog to mind it,
Frog got to noddin, and
A lizard come and stold it-
Spoken: BRING BACK MY HOE-CAKE, YOU LONG-TAILED NANNY-O!
Many years ago I did a residency in Fresno State College, and met and made music with the folk group there. Jody Stretcher was one of them, and I'm pretty sure he must have learned that little poem from me.
It appears as a song in Ruth Crawford Seeger's "Animal Folk Songs for Children," and is sung by Neill and Calum MacColl on the (extended) Seeger family recordings of the same name. Ruth Seeger credited Jacob A. Evanson in "American Folksong and the Total Culture," published by the Music Publishers Journal, July-Aug., Sept.-Oct. 1944. She's got it marked as originating in Pennsylvania. The words differ slightly from Jean's version, and I can't say it's particularly bluegrassy, it is just a short little ditty:
F C F C The snake baked a hoecake,
F Bb C and set a frog to watch it.
F C F C The frog fell a-dozing,
F Bb C and the lizard came and took it.
F C F C7 Bring back my hoecake, you long-tailed nanny-o.
Cecil Sharp collected a version in 1918 and published it in his English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians:
Sharp 238- Snake Baked a Hoe-cake
Sung by Mr. EBE RICHARDS Pentatonic. Mode 3 (Tonic G) at St. Peter's School, Callaway, Aug. 18, 1918.
Snake baked a hoe-cake, and set a frog to watch it.
And the frog got a nodding, and a lizard came and stole it.
Fetch back my hoe-cake, you long-tailed Nanny you,
Fetch back my hoe-cake, you long-tailed Nanny you.
Brown 185 Snake Baked A Hoecake:
From Brown Collection of NC Folkore: White ANFS 158-9 and 246-7 presents evidence that this song has been known in America since about 1810-12 and quotes from a letter remarking upon its occurrence in Washington Irving's notebook for 1817. Sharp found it as a nursery song in Virginia in 1918 ( SharpK 11 346), and Davis so reports it ( FSV 206). Not improbably 'I Went Down to the Low Ground,' No. 187 of the present collection, is derived from it. It appears also as the vinal stanza of one of the lullabies, 116 B.
A. 'Snake Baked A Hoecake.' Reported by K. P. Lewis, Durham, as set down from the singing or recitation of Dr. Kemp P. Battle of Chapel Hill in September 1920.
Snake haked a hoecake, set the frog to mind it.
Frog he went a-nodding, lizard came and stole it.
'Bring hack my hoecake, you long-tailed ninny !'
B. 'The Snake Baked a Hoecake.' From Miss Mamie Mansfield, Fowler School District, Durliam, in 1922.
The snake haked a hoecake,
Left the lizard to mind it.
The lizard came and stole it.
"You bring back my hoecake,
You long-tailed Nannie!'
C. 'Snake Baked a Hoecake.' From Aliss Amy Henderson, Worry. Burke
county, about 1915-
Snake baked a hoecake and set a frog to mind it.
Frog went to sleep and lizard come and find it.
"Behind the Dark Pines" By Martha Young 1912: Here, the chorus has an extra part:
CHORUS: Bring back my hoecake!
You long-tailed nanny!
Bring back my hoecake!
I got it fum my granny.
Lyrics from Kuntz:
Snake bake a hoecake,
And lef' a frog to mind it
Frog went away, an'
De lizard come and find it.
|