“The King of the Cannibal Islands”
Description
Sometimes a ballad about castaways marrying the daughter of the King of the Cannibal Islands, but often degenerates into a quatrain-ballad about the odd events on the islands. The use of the title phrase is characteristic.
Notes
This doesn't show up in folk songbooks much, but it seems to me that I heard it somewhere in my youth; I suspect it qualifies as a children's folk song. At least, I'm putting it here on that assumption. - RBW
From the commentary for broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(147): "This ballad was written at a high-point of British Imperialism, and is a telling illustration of the superior attitudes which popularly existed among both those Brits who settled abroad, in countries such as Africa, and also among the broadside-buying public back in Scotland. As with another broadside in the National Library of Scotland's collection, 'The Queen of Otaheite', the 'natives' are portrayed as bigamous cannibals, with little regard for Western ways."
Opie-Oxford2 re 227, "Hokey, pokey, whisky, thum": Evidently derived from "King of the Cannibal Islands" by A.W. Humphreys. See broadside [Note however that the NLScotland broadside of 1858 states that the tune comes from "Hokee Pokee Wonkee Fum"] - BS
Same tune
- Hoke Pokee Wonkee Fum (per broadside, NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147))
- The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia) (File: PFS101)
Cross references
- cf."The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia)" (tune)
Broadsides
- Bodleian, Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2, "The King of the Cannibal Islands," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 536, Harding B 11(322), Harding B 11(1997), Firth c.17(312), Harding B 11(1496), Harding B 11(2830), "[The] King of the Cannibal Islands"
- NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147), "The King of the Cannibal Islands," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858
References
- Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 195, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (2 texts, 1 tune)
- Roud #15695
- BI, PHCFS195