Document Type
Notes
Files
Download Full Text (4.8 MB)
Date
1950
Keywords
Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, lullabies, Lebanon Valley, nursery rhymes, chants, fortune telling, school children
Description
A handwritten document by an unknown author, dating from circa 1950. Within, the author details various Pennsylvania German sayings, chants, and rhymes.
Corresponds to:
Packet 200-4 to 200-8
Transcription
Hilee Hilo
Hile Hilo Hile Hilo
By uns gates immer ve langer ve schlimmer
Hile Hilo Hile Hilo
By uns gates immer yo so.
Ich hab sone lever alder schware
Dar beddled he un beddled hare
Won grickt ar feel don drawkt ar schware (heavy)
Won grickt ar nix so cumdt ar lare.
Hile Hilo etc
My schware dar hut an boweri
Mit lawma gile un dara sy
Ar hut an gonser schtol ful kee
De schtana im dreck bis on de gnee
Hile Hilo etc (There is more)
A lullaby evidently translated from the High German Virgin's Slumber Song
Tune very similar.
De Mary sitst im Rosa lunt
Un shuckeld era kindt
In da greena bledder
Weddled an warmer soomer wint
Schlof leves kindly
Schlof schlof schlof
Here is another snatch of a lullaby I am trying to assemble. Do you have it?
By-o-le By-o-le By-o
Was rabbled im schtro?
Es ketzly is doat uns micely is fro
By-o-le By-o-le By-o (There is more about getting another cat)
As you no doubt know many, or at least some, of the early settlers of the Leb. Valley migrated here from the [Schoharie] valley in NY. having first settled among the Holland Dutch. I believe that some of our Pa. Dutch songs are corruptions of Holland Dutch rather than German. Here is one I heard sung in an English translation from the Dutch the words being almost the very same. I believe the Eng. nursery rhyme and tune of “Sleep Baby Sleep” are also from the original Dutch. The spirit of it is not English. And yet one can never tell - sheep, stars, Bubbies, mommies and dawdies are universal. Anyway, what does it matter.
Schlof, Bubby, Schlof
Dar dawdie heed de schof
De mommie shuckled dar darna bawm
Un uf dich faldt an schaner drawm
Schlof, Bubby, Schlof
De schtarna sin de schof
De glana schtarna sin shiplin sees
Wisa shiplin mit schwartza fees
Schlof, Bubby, Schlof
Here is a little jingle to chant as you jangle babies on your foot. (Shame on you!)
Rida Rida Gilie
Alla schtundt a milie
Schpringt des gilie iver dar grawva
Falsht du ny so musht es hava
Bump - dart lysht du drin
(At this point you slam baby on floor.)
As you count the fingers-
Dar dowma
Dar shiddled de blowma
Dar layst se uf
Dar drawkt se ny
De glae grut frest se ol.
Jingle
Drus drus drilly
Dar bower hut en filly
De filly will not lawfa
Dar bower will se farkawfa
So schpringt de filly weck
Don hut dar bower dreck dreck dreck
Booklich Menly
Won ich ous mime bedly gae
Un fong mich aw tsu dumla
Cumdt des booklich menly rouse
Un fungdt mar aw tsu grumla
Booklich menly du mawkst grumla
Lus michyisht mich wannich dumla
No mawkst du grumla
Won ich on my effly gae
Far my firely schtarra
Cumdt des booklich menly noch
Un fungdt mar aw tsu gnarra
Booklich menly du mawkst gnarra
Lus mich yusht my firely schtarra
No mawkst du gnarra
Won ich un my ___ gae (Something like a shrine or family altar. Can't find the word. Perhaps you know)
My gabately sawga
Cumdt des booklich menly noch
Un fungdt mar aw tsu glawka
Booklich menly etc
Won ich in my kichlie gae
Far my essa mocha
Cumdt des booklich menly nous
Un fungdt mar aw tsu locha
Won ich on my dishly gae
Far my potwarsht essa
Cumdt des booklich menly noch
Un fungdt mar aw tsu fressa
Won ich in my kemmerly gae
Far my schlophute sucha
Cumdt des booklich menly noch
Un fungdt mar aw tsu flucha
Won ich in my schtelly gae
Far my keely melka
Cumdt des booklich menly noch
Un fungdt mar aw tsu shelda
Won ich in my heisley gae
Far my heisley butza
Cumdt des booklich menly noch
Un fungdt mar aw tsu brutza (This one is endless. I have lots more if you want it. It develops that this pestiferous little man objects to everything but eating. The tune is very much like Tara rara bum-de-a
To chant as you touch the buttons on clothes of wearer
Adelmon, bedelmon, bower, soldawt, kanich, kiser, warrick-wiser.
The one which falls upon the last button indicates your profession if a boy or the profession of your future husband if a girl. The first + last sound inane. Perhaps the last means a man who shows you how to work. I mean as pertains to the custom of apprenticeship which was still prevalent when my father was a boy. He, himself, was for three years apprentice to a carpenter. (Work without pay.) The first, I imagine, I have quite wrong.
To tell fortune - a sanitary custom the children still practice at “Pleasant Retreat” school, behind the schoolhouse.
Ich sawk dar war
Die cup is full hoar
Ich sawk dar was
Die hond is nos
At this point you spit in the palm you have been reading.
Many of these old saying sound inane because they have kept passing around long after the original import is lost. Such a one is this:
Mommie Dawdie Kasabrod
Schlog dar Henner Waver doat
Schlaf en in de hecka
Dart mawk ar fulshter farrecka
The connection is this: a man on his way to pay a sum of interest due to neighbor on Apr. 1st was found dead in some bushes. The decision finally had it that stray robbers committed the crime. But neighbors agreed on placing the guilt on an avaricious couple near his home and felt that he was killed, then dragged to the bushes. Not daring to accuse these people yet not satisfied to let matters rest as settled by law, they would, in the presence of these two, in public places, repeat these lines. The names, of course, being fictitious yet suggesting the names of parties supposedly involved.
Language
English and Pennsylvania German
Rights Statement
This item is available courtesy of the Ursinus College Library Special Collections Department. It is not to be copied or distributed for commercial use. For permissions which fall outside of educational use, please contact the Special Collections Department.
Recommended Citation
Author, Unknown, "Pennsylvania German Rhymes, Chants, and Lullabies" (1950). Alfred L. Shoemaker Folk Cultural Documents. 279.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/279
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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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