Nineteenth-Century Yiddish Folksongs of Children in Eastern Europe

Abstract

O NN E OF THE MOST INTERESTING CATEGORIES of folksongs is the children's folksong. The ditty, the counting-out rhyme, the chant, all play a very important role in the life of the child. In song are mirrored two worlds: on the one hand, the feelings of the child itself, its temperament, imagination, playfulness, wisdom, humor, and often satire; and on the other hand, the views and sentiments of its elders and certain current events. Both adult and child have created for children. Both have at one time or another edited and improved each other's compositions. Children's songs among various peoples are often similar. They may contain the remnants of a custom which existed centuries ago. They may possess social significance or poetic value. In a rhyme, sung to the jumping of a rope, skipping about, playing hopscotch, turning in a ring game, or merely chanted, we may encounter an expression which has long since disappeared from current speech. And again, we may come across songs and chants which were written only yesterday and relate to an occurrence in our day. Henry Bett says: was only with the rise of the new science of folklore which really dates from early in the last century, that these rhymes and stories began to attract attention. Then it appeared that they were to be found all over Europe and that they have analogies among uncivilized peoples all over the world. It appeared also that many of them are of incredible antiquity, bearing unmistakable traces of origin in prehistoric times .... children's rhymes contain recollections of chronicled history.' Certainly if the science of general folklore is new, the science of Jewish folklore is even more recent. Jewish folklore has ancient roots, but the serious study began in the early part of the twentieth century. J. L. Cahan, an outstanding collector of Yiddish folksong, writes: Many of our children's rhymes are remnants, bits of old, long-forgotten songs, which were sung originally by adults . . . some are centuries old and their origin is difficult to trace. Others seem to be not. so old and yet it is difficult to determine the time of their birth.2