Fa Hingit the Monkey no.3

Well, the Hartlepool/Boddam monkey went down well in Cardiff! And, surprise, surprise, Matilda Burden, of Stellenbosch University, South Africa, did a paper on another monkey - this one was getting married! 'Die apie se bruilof/ The Monkey's Wedding' is a nonsense song like The Fishermen Hung the Monkey' with a nod to Froggie Went a-Courting, where all the animals in the jungle get together for the Monkey and Ape's nuptials, and have a minibeast-feast!





Matilda borrowed the sock-monkey, which actually belongs to fellow-blogger, Aktoman, for her presentation also. Here we are with Monkey sporting his noose!



I found another monkey wedding song which got the two of us thinking, as Matilda had heard reference to it in the 19th/20th Century Greig-Duncan Folksong Collection! So it could be yet another North East Scots song which clearly travelled the world!



The Monkey's Wedding

The monkey married the baboon's sister,
Gave her a ring and then he kissed her.
She set up a yell.
The bridesmaid stuck on some court-plaster.
It stuck so fast it couldn't stick faster.
Surely 'twas a sad disaster,
But it soon got well.


What do you think the bride was dressed in?
White gauze veil and a green glass breast-pin,
Red kid shoes, quite interestin'.
She was quite a belle.
The bridegroom blazed with a blue shirt-collar,
Black silk stock that cost a dollar,
Large false whiskers the fashion to follow,
He cut a monstrous swell.


What do you think they had for supper?
Chestnuts raw and boiled and roasted,
Apples sliced and onions toasted,
Peanuts not a few.
What do you think they had for a fiddle?
An old banjo with a hole in the middle,
A tambourine and a worn-out griddle,
Hurdy-gurdy too.


What do you think were the tunes they danced to?
What were the figures they advanced to?
Up and down as they chanced to,
Tails they were too long.
"Duck In The Kitchen," "Old Aunt Sally,"
Plain cotillion, "Who Keeps Tally."
Up and down they charge and rally.
Ended is my song.
[From Carl Sandburg's "American Songbag".]



This monkey is male, but Matilda's one was female, and the South-African song concentrates heavily on the wedding feast, which has input from the foodlore text 'Useful Recipes'!!



Matlida has still to send me the text for the Afrikaans version, but I reckon I'll be learning it along with the Hartlepool monkey. The Poolies will be getting to read my paper soon, as I met up with Hartlepool United FC Fanzine editor, John Cooper, a few days ago, and gave him a copy. He seems tickled pink with it.









The rugby team also still uses the hanged monkey logo as you can see!

I think that's the end of this series for now, but I'm sure there is much more to be said about the monkey-hanging legend.