Cannibal King Medley, The

DESCRIPTION: "A cannibal king with a big nose-ring" courts a maid and sings to her under a bamboo tree. "When we are married happy we will be ... under the bamboo tree." "If you'll be M-I-N-E mine ... I'll L-O-V-E love you all the T-I-M-E time." May use kissing sounds
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love marriage playparty wordplay campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 453-454, "The Cannibal King Medley" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 124, 150, 153, 193, 234, 285, 385, 390, "Cannibal King"; pp. 125, 193, 517, "Under the Bamboo Tree" (notes only)
cf. Harbin-Parodology, #421, p. 103, "If You'll Be M-I-N-E" (1 text)
Roud #20036
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Ahlstone, "The Old King Cole" (Piotr-Archive #1584, recorded 09/19/2025)
Madonna Saltern, "The Cannibal King" (Piotr-Archive #1479, recorded 08/06/2025)
NOTES [145 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "In 1895 Harry Harndin's comic song 'A Cannibal King' was published (music by Harriet Harndin), and in 1902 Cole and Johnson's 'Under the Bamboo Tree'...survived ... with a third element, 'If you'll be M-I-N-E') as a composite student song known as 'The Cannibal King Medley'." - BS
"The Cannibal King" was evidently popular in scout camps, but it's not clear to me how many used all of it and how many used parts. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 193, implies that more used the "Cannibal King" verse than the "Under the Bamboo Tree" verse.
The version Derek Piotr picked up from Daisy Ahlstone is a fascinating variant in which the Cannibal King is replaced by Old King Cole and the song covers many more years. It is clearly a rewrite, but I can't find any evidence of who rewrote it, or any other versions. A fascinating little mystery. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: OpGap453

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