I Wish I Was a Hynocereous

DESCRIPTION: "(I'm a/I wish I was a) (Hynocereous), a (Rhippopotamus), ha ha ha ha. But I'm not and I never can hope to be a H...,, a R... I'm a June Bug, I'm a beetle, I buzz and hit my head against a tree, ha ha ha ha." Repeat with tangled words
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (a Rutgers somgbook, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense bug nonballad campsong | hippopotamus rhinoceros June bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 422, 490, "I'm a Hilsararious, a Rippimatanemy"/"I'm a Hynocereous" (notes plus a partial text on p. 422)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wish I Was A Honasorarius
I Wish I Were a Hineaserarious
NOTES [470 words]: This has to be a folk song; all of the handful of versions I found use different names for the critters. Clearly it was transmitted orally. When I encountered it under Averill's first title of "I'm a Hilsararious, a Rippimatanemy," I had no idea what the original was. But I think that title is actually wrong, because the other versions were all "I wish I were a(n) h...," not "I'm a(n) h...."
That still left the name of the actual critters. In addition to "Hilsararious," online versions offered "Honasorarius" and "Hineaserarious" and perhaps others I didn't locate, and at minimum "Rippimatanemy" and "Rippamatadame" for creature #2.
What was pretty clear is that those words were not just garbled in transmission; they had been fractured all along -- because the versions all agreed in garbling the last lines, and indeed in how they garbled them: The first time through, they are "I'm a June bug, I'm a beetle, I buzzed and hit." When the song is repeated, they are jumbled to give "I'm a bune jug, I'm a teeball, I (h)uzzed and bit."
Steve Gardham suggested that the critters should be insects, to go with the June Bug. Since butterflies are considered among the most beautiful insects, that suggested Rhopalocera (butterflies) as the "R" word. Gardham suggested Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants) as the other critter.
I had conjectured otherwise, trying to think of impressive critters whose names started with "H" and "R." This suggested Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros.
I then discovered Averill's second version. with no text but with the title ""I'm a Hynocereous." I think this proves my conjecture. "Hynocereous" (or "Hinocerous," as I would spell it), is clearly "Rhinoceros" with the "Rh" swapped with an H from Hippopotamus. So the second creature must be a Rhippopotamus.
So our first verse is
I wish I was a Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
ha ha ha ha.
But I'm not and I never can hope to be
A Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
I'm a June Bug, I'm a beetle,
I buzz and hit my head against a tree.
And the second verse is
I wish I was a Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
ha ha ha ha.
But I'm not and I never can hope to be
A Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
I'm a bune jug, I'm a teeball,
I huzzed and bit my head against a tree.
One might conjecture that there was once a first verse, now lost, which ran
I wish I was a Rhinoceros, a Hippopotamus
ha ha ha ha.
But I'm not and I never can hope to be
A Rhinoceros, a Hippopotamus
I'm a June Bug, I'm a beetle,
I buzz and hit my head against a tree.
This was then metathesized (the technical term for this sort of scramble is "metathesis") into the extant second verse, which became further confused when the first verse, and the key to the whole thing, was lost.
Curiously, the Google Books version of Averill omits the entire section containing Averill's first title. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF422

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