General Summary, A

DESCRIPTION: As found in tradition, just a few lines: "As it was in the beginning Is today, official sinning, And shall be forevermore."
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (date of writing, according to Internet sources)
KEYWORDS: sin nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 24, "As it was in the beginning" (1 fragment)
Roud #25360
NOTES [121 words]: Kipling's original poem opens
We are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
India's Prehistoric clay;
He that drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
As we run men down to-day.
The final verse, from which Alice Kane's half-verse derives, runs
Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
And shall be for evermore!
The general theme is of cheating through the ages -- e.g. the contractor who built the Great Pyramid probably cheated Pharaoh Cheops.
It is interesting to note that, since Kipling did not die until Alice Kane was in her late twenties, Kipling would have been alive when Kane learned this song.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC024B

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