Kitty won't you kymie-o
DJ, 1965
Way down yonder in the cedar tree
Sing song kitty won't you kymie o
Niggers they all grow ten feet
Sing song kitty won't you kymie o
Kymo kymie-o dare o way to me hi to me ho
to me rumma sticka dummafiddle rockstock pennywinkle
In come a nip cat hit him on the head with a boot jack
Sing song kitty won't you kymie o
They go to bed but it aint use
Sing song kitty won't you kymie o
Cos their feet hang out of the roost
Sing song kitty won't you kymie o
Opossum up a persimmon tree
So very shy he looked at me
Picked up a rock so very sly
'coos if I didn't take him in the eye
I took him home to Sara Belle
Cause I knew she could cook him well
Cooked him boiled him made him a stew
Boys won't you come to the barbecue
From Dave
About
American websites tell me that possums and persimmons are a traditional delicacy out in the country. I'd always thought the song was rather laughing at country boys and what they would eat.
There are hundreds of versions of this song, even in written form dating back to the 1800s.
Another version of the chorus goes:
Kemo, kimo! There! oh where?--
With my hi, my ho, and in come Sally, singing
Sometimes penny winkle, lingtum, nipcat,
Sing song, Kitty, can't you ki' me, oh!
Which doesn't make much more sense. A different explanation of the legs hanging out of the roost.
Milk in the dairy nine days old,
Frogs and the 'skeeters getting mighty bold,
They try to sleep, but it ain't no use,
Their legs hung out for the chickens to roost.
Another related version is
A kangaroo sat on an oak,
To my inkum kiddy kum kimo,
Watching a tailor mend his coat,
To my inkum kiddy kum kimo.
Kimi neero kiddy kum keero
Kimi neero kimo
Ba ba ba ba billy illy inkum
Inkum kiddy kum kimo.
Which doesn't improve matters either. Not as you might think an Australian version - kangaroo is a corrupt form of the original "carrion crow".