Thousand Legged Worm (Centipede)

DESCRIPTION: "Said a thousand legged worm, As he gave a little squirm, 'Has anybody seen a leg of mine? If it hasn't been found I shall have to hop around On the other nine hundred ninety-nine.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: bug humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 78, "The Thousand-Legged Worm" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #72, p. 23, "Thousand-Legged Worm" (1 text, tune referenced)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 51-52, "The Thousand-Legged Worm" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 96, 137, "Thousand Legged Worm" (notes only)
DT, THOULEG
Roud #22406
NOTES [131 words]: Although the name "centipede" means hundred-feet, and millipede means "thousand-feet," until 2021, no species of this type had been found with more than 750 legs (a single species with 1306 legs was found in Australia in 2021, according to National Public Radio, but it's not one you're ever likely to encounter; it lives deep underground). Moreover, although centipedes have their legs in pairs, they always have an odd number of pairs -- so 98 or 102 are possible, but not 100, and if they could grow even more, they would have 998 or 1002 legs, not 1000.
Harbin-Parodology and Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook say that this is sung to "Polly Wolly Doodle," and that certainly fits the chorus, but it appears to me that one line has to be repeated in Harbin's verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF096A

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