No. 21 Oats, Pease, Beans, and Barley Grows
This round, although very familiar to all American children, seems, strangely enough, to be unknown in Great Britain; yet it is still a favorite in France, Provence, Spain, Italy, Sicily, Germany, and Sweden; it was played by Froissart (born 1337), and Rabelais (born 1483); while the general resemblance of the song in European countries proves that in the five centuries through which we thus trace it, even the words have undergone little change. Like the first game of our collection, it is properly a dance rather of young people than of children; and a comparative examination of versions inclines us to the belief that it is of Romance descent. The lines of the French refrain,71 and the general form of the dance, suggest that the song may probably have had (perhaps in remote classic time) a religious and symbolic meaning, and formed part of rustic festivities designed to promote the fertility of the fields; an object which undoubtedly formed the original purpose of the May festival. So much for conjecture; but, in any case, it is pleasant to think of the many generations of children, in so many widely separated lands, who have rejoiced in the pretty game.
The ring circles, singing, about a child in the centre—
Oats, pease, beans, and barley grows,
Oats, pease, beans, and barley grows;
How you, nor I, nor nobody knows,
Oats, pease, beans, and barley grows.
The children now pause, and sing with appropriate gestures—
Thus the farmer sows his seed,
Stands erect and takes his ease,
Stamps his foot, and claps his hands,
And turns about to view his lands.
Waiting for a partner,
Waiting for a partner,
Open the ring and take her in,
And kiss her when you get her in.
The boy selects a girl, and the two kneel in the ring, and salute—
Now you’re married, you must obey,
You must be true to all you say,
You must be kind, you must be good,
And make your husband chop the wood.
What we have said of the permanency of the words applies only to the action, the essential part, of the game. The amatory chorus, by which the song is made to serve the purpose of love-making, is very variable. Thus we have the quaint conclusion of the last line at greater length:
And now you’re married in Hymen’s band,
You must obey your wife’s command;
You must obey your constant good,
And keep your wife in hickory wood—
Split the wood and carry it in, [twice]
And then she’ll let you kiss her again.
“Splitting the wood” was a very troublesome part of the New England farmer’s ménage.
More commonplace are the choruses:
You must be good, you must be true,
And do as you see others do.
Or—
And live together all your life,
And I pronounce you man and wife.
Or again—
And love each other like sister and brother,
And now kneel down and kiss each other.72
In place of “sister and brother,” the malicious wit of little girls substituted “cats and dogs.”73
In the early part of the century the essential stanza went thus in New Hampshire:
Thus my father sows his seed,
Stands erect and takes his ease,
Stamps his foot, and claps his hands,
Whirls about, and thus he stands.
The Swedish quatrain is nearly the same:
I had a father, he sowed this way,
And when he had done, he stood this way;
He stamped with his foot, he clapped with his hand,
He turned about, he was so glad.
The French rhyme, by its exact correspondence, proves the great antiquity of the formula.[74]
The German game, as is often the case with German children’s games and ballads in general, is more modernized than in the other tongues, and has become a coarse jest. It is represented how the farmer sows his oats, cuts it, binds it, carries it home, stores it, threshes it, takes it to market, sells it, spends the money in carousal, comes home drunk, and quarrels with his wife, because she has cooked him no supper! Verily, a satire from the lips of children!
Fauriel, in his history of Provençal literature, alludes to this song, which it seems he had seen danced in Provence, and considers to be derived from, and to represent, choral dances of Greek rustics. “The words of the song,” he says, speaking of these ancient dances, “described an action, a succession of different situations, which the dancers reproduced by their gestures. The song was divided into many stanzas, and terminated by a refrain alike for all. The dancers acted or gesticulated only to imitate the action or situation described in each stanza; at the refrain they took each other by the hand and danced a round, with a movement more or less lively. There are everywhere popular dances derived from these, which more or less resemble them.... I remember to have seen in Provence some of these dances, of which the theme seems to be very ancient—one, among the rest, imitating successively the habitual actions of a poor laborer, working in his field, sowing his wheat or oats, mowing, and so on to the end. Each of the numerous couplets of the song was sung with a slow and dragging motion, as if to imitate the fatigue and the sullen air of the poor laborer; and the refrain was of a very lively movement, the dancers then giving way to all their gayety.”75
The French, Italian, and Spanish versions of this game also represent a series of actions, sowing, reaping, etc., of which our own rhyme has retained only one stanza. There is a whole class of similar rounds, which describe the labors of the farmer, vine-dresser, etc. That such a song, danced in sowing-time, and representing the progress and abundance of the crop, should be supposed to bring a blessing on the labors of the year, is quite in conformity with what we know of popular belief, ancient and modern. When a French savant asked the peasants of La Châtre why they performed the dance of “Threading the Needle” (see No. 29), the answer was, “To make the hemp grow.” It is not in the least unlikely that the original of the present chant was sung, with a like object, by Italian rustics in the days of Virgil.