Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 15

CHAPTER XIII

CHANTS OF THE CREED

The game of _Twelve Days_, especially in one French version, shows that instruction was conveyed by the c.u.mulative mode of recitation. There are many pieces enlarging on matters of belief--Hebrew, Christian, Druidical, and heathen--which in the same way a.s.sociate numbers with objects. The comparison of these pieces suggests that they are all derived from one original source. They may fitly be termed Chants of the Creed.

One of these c.u.mulative chants is included in the Hebrew service for the night of the Pa.s.sover, which is called _Echod mi jodea_, "He who knows."[55] It is recited to a monotonous tune after the return of the family from celebration, either by the master of the house or by the a.s.sembled company. The dialogue form, I am told, is no longer observed.

The piece begins:--

Who knoweth One?--I, saith Israel, know One.

One is G.o.d, who is over heaven and earth.

Who knoweth Two?--I, saith Israel, know Two.

Two tables of the covenant; but One is our G.o.d who is over the heavens and the earth....

[55] Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_, I, 87, citing Mendes, _Service for the First Nights of the Pa.s.sover_, 1862.

And so forth to the last verse, which is as follows:--

Who knoweth thirteen?--I, saith Israel, know thirteen: Thirteen divine attributes--twelve tribes--eleven stars--ten commandments--nine months preceding childbirth--eight days preceding circ.u.mcision--seven days of the week--six books of the Mishnah--five books of the Law--four matrons--three patriarchs--two tables of the covenant--but One is our G.o.d, who is over the heavens and the earth.

The same chant adapted to matters of Christian belief, but carried only from one to twelve, is current also in Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Danish. Among ourselves it is set as a song. But the objects which are a.s.sociated with the numbers are not uniformly the same, and this renders it probable that the chants were composed independently of one another. This view is supported by the fact that some of the items that are named in the Christian chants are not Christian, and are, in fact, identical with the items named in the entirely heathen chants.

The Latin version of the Chant of the Creed has been traced back to the second half of the sixteenth century. Its words were set to music in a motet for thirteen voices by Theodor Clinius (d. 1602), a Venetian by birth (E., p. 408). Another Latin version of the chant goes back to 1650. The chant begins:--

Dic mihi quid unus?

--Unus est Jesus Christus [_or_ Deus] qui regnat in aeternum [_or_ coelis]. (A., I, 420.)

"Tell me, what is One? One is Jesus Christ [_or_ G.o.d] who reigns in eternity [_or_ in heaven]."

The answers further explain two as the testaments, three as the patriarchs, four as the evangelists, five as the books of Moses, six as the water-jugs of Cana in Galilee, seven as the gifts of the spirit (_or_ the candelabra lit before G.o.d), eight as the beat.i.tudes, nine as the orders (_or_ choirs of the angels), ten as the commandments, eleven as the disciples (_or_ stars seen by Joseph), twelve as the articles of the faith (_or_ the apostles).

The Chant of the Creed as recited in Spain (A., II, 142) is set in the same form, and explains the numbers in much the same manner, except that six are the days of the Creation, and eleven are eleven thousand virgins. Another version (A., II, 104) a.s.sociates the Virgin with one, the three Maries with three, while nine, like the Hebrew chant, indicates the months of expectancy of the Virgin. In a Portuguese version also, nine are the months of Christ's becoming, and eleven are eleven thousand virgins (A., II, 102).

Throughout Italy and in Sicily the Chant of the Creed is known as _Le dodici parole della Verita_, "the twelve words of truth." They are generally put into the lips of the popular saint, Nicolas of Bari, who is said to have defeated the evil intentions of Satan by teaching them.

These Italian chants for the most part agree with the Latin chant already cited, except that two in the Abruzzi is a.s.sociated with the sun and the moon; five is explained as the wounds of Jesus _or_ of St.

Francis, and eleven stands for the articles of the Catholic faith (A., I, 419; II, 97).

In Denmark the Chant of the Creed is put into the lips of St. Simeon, and begins:--

Stat op, Sante Simeon, og sig mig, hvad een er?

"Stand forth, St. Simeon, and tell me, what is one."

The explanations in this case are strictly Christian, Jesus Christ standing for One. The souls saved by G.o.d from the ark (_sjaele frelste Gud udi Arken_) stand for eight (Gt., II, 68).

In Languedoc also the chant is current in a Christian adaptation which agrees with the Latin, except that the Trinity stands for three; the wounds of Jesus, as in the Italian chant, stand for five; the lights in the temple stand for six; and the joys of our Lady stand for seven (M.

L., p. 478).

From Europe the Chant of the Creed has been carried to Canada, where a version is sung in French to a monotonous tune in four beats at a formal kind of dance, called a _ronde religieuse_--a religious round. To this dance six couples stand up; each dancer represents a number. To the sound of their singing they move in a chain, each person turning first to the right, then to the left. When number six is reached in singing, and every time that six recurs in the chant, the dancing stops, and to the words "_six urnes de vin remplies_," the dancers who represent even numbers turn first to the right, then to the left, and make a deep bow, while those that represent uneven numbers perform the same ceremony the other way about (G., p. 298). Then the dancing is resumed. This figure, judging from the description, exactly corresponds to the Grand Chain in Lancers, except that six couples dance instead of four or eight.

In the Canadian chant the explanations of the numbers are all Christian, except that for eleven they say eleven thousand virgins, which agrees with the virgins of the Spanish and Portuguese chants. These eleven thousand virgins are mentioned also in a version of the chant current in Zurich, which, unlike the others, carries the numbers to fifteen. It enumerates Christian matters similar to those already named as far as nine choirs of angels, and further a.s.sociates ten with thousands of knights, eleven with thousands of virgins, the apostles with twelve, the disciples with thirteen, the helpers in need (_Nothelfer_) with fourteen, the mysteries with fifteen. This chant is set in the old way of question and answer, and the answers are recited in c.u.mulative form (R., p. 268).

The Chant of the Creed in a late development is preserved in the form of a religious poem among ourselves which is called _A New Dyall_. Two versions of it are preserved in the MS. Harleian 5937, which dates from about the year 1625. They have been printed by F. S. A. Sandys among his _Christmas Carols_. The refrain of the one recalls the celebration of Twelve Days:--

In those twelve days, in those twelve days, let us be glad, For G.o.d of His power hath all things made.

In both pieces the dialogue form is dropped, and there is no attempt at c.u.mulation.

One G.o.d, one baptism, and one faith, One truth there is the Scripture saith; Two Testaments, the old and new, We do acknowledge to be true; Three persons are in Trinity, Which make one G.o.d in Unity; Four sweet evangelists there are Christ's birth, life, death, which do declare; Five senses like five kings, maintain In every man a several reign; Six days to labour is not wrong, For G.o.d Himself did work so long; Seven liberal arts has G.o.d sent down With divine skill man's soul to crown; Eight in Noah's ark alive were found, When (in a word) the World lay drowned.

Nine Muses (like the heaven's nine spheres) With sacred tunes entice our ears; Ten statutes G.o.d to Moses gave Which, kept or broke, do spoil or save; Eleven with Christ in heaven do dwell, The twelfth for ever burns in h.e.l.l; Twelve are attending on G.o.d's Son; Twelve make our Creed, "the dyall's done."[56]

[56] Sandys, F. S. A.: _Christmas Carols_, p. 59 ff.

The objects named in this poem agree in most cases with those of the Latin chant, but six, there a.s.sociated with the water-jugs in Cana of Galilee, is here a.s.sociated with the days of the Creation, which correspond with the six days of the Creation of the Spanish Chant of the Creed, and with the six working days of the week of a heathen dialogue story to which we shall return later. The number eight is here a.s.sociated with the persons saved in the ark of Noah, as in the Chant of the Creed which is current in Denmark.

CHAPTER XIV

HEATHEN CHANTS OF THE CREED

We now turn to those versions of the Chant of the Creed which are heathen in character. Again we have versions before us in the vernacular of Brittany, Spain, Scotland, and several set in the form of songs that are current in different parts of England.

The most meaningful and elaborate versions of the chant come from Brittany. One is called _Les vepres des grenouilles_. It is set in the form of instruction, and begins:--

Can caer, Killore. Iolic, petra faot dide?

Caera trac a gement orizoud ti. (L., I, p. 95.)

"Chant well, Killore. Iolic, what shall I sing?--The most beautiful thing thou knowest."

And it enumerates, "One silver ring to Mary, two silver rings, three queens in a palace, four acolytes, five black cows, six brothers and six sisters, seven days and seven moons, eight beaters of the air, nine armed sons, ten s.h.i.+ps on the sh.o.r.e, eleven sows, twelve small swords."

This combination of objects with numbers from one to twelve agrees most closely with the enumeration of the game of _Twelve Days_.

The longer version of the Breton chant was interpreted by its editor as a chant of instruction, and he claimed for it a Druidical origin. It begins:--

Beautiful child of the Druid, answer me right well.

--What would'st thou that I should sing?--

Sing to me the series of number one, that I may learn it this very day.

--There is no series for one, for One is Necessity alone, the father of death, there is nothing before and nothing after.

And we read of two as oxen yoked to a cart; of three as the beginning, the middle, and the end of the world for man and for the oak; also of the three kingdoms of Merlin; of four as the stones of Merlin for sharpening the swords of the brave; of five as the terrestrial zones, the divisions of time, the rocks on one sister (_sic_); of six as babes of wax quickened into life through the power of the moon; of seven as the suns, the moons, and the planets, including _La Poule_ (i.e. the constellation) of Charles's Wain; of eight as the winds that blow, eight fires with the great fire lighted in the month of May on the War Mountain; of nine as little white hands near the tower of Lezarmeur, and as maidens who groan; of nine also as maidens who dance with flowers in their hair and in white robes around the well by the light of the moon; 'the wild sow and her young at the entrance to their lair, are snorting and snarling, snarling and snorting; little one, little one, hurry to the apple-tree, the wild boar will instruct you'; of ten as the enemy's boats on the way from Nantes, 'woe to you, woe to you, men of Vannes'; of eleven as priests 'coming from Vannes with broken swords and blood-stained garments, and crutches of hazel-wood, of three hundred only these eleven ones are left'; of twelve as months and signs, 'Sagittarius, the one before the last, lets fly his pointed arrow. The twelve signs are at war. The black cow with a white star on her forehead rushes from the forest (_des despouilles_) pierced by a pointed arrow, her blood flows, she bellows with raised head. The trumpet sounds, fire and thunder, rain and wind. No more, no more, there is no further series.' (H. V., p. 1.)

The contents of this chant in several particulars agree with the shorter one. Seven stands for days, eight for winds, and ten for boats.