King of the Cannibal Islands, The

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.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Hodgson's Royal Song Book, p. 4); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2)
KEYWORDS: humorous cannibalism royalty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 195, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 40, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 3, "King of the Cannibal Islands" (1 text)
Roud #15695
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
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf."The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia) (File: PFS101)
Whalers' Rhymes (File: BaRo017)
When I Went Off to Prospect (File: LDC109)
The Mormon King (File: LDC214)
In the Midst of Those Awful Mormons (File: FSSS123B)
The Cohabs (File: Hub222)
Hoke Pokee Wonkee Fum (per broadside, NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147)); to this compare "Rex Anthropophagae Insulae" (Lating for "[The] King of [the] Cannibal Islands," by A. V. P., "with chorus in the vernacular: -- Hokee pokee winkee wung") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 88)
Song of a Strike (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 84-85)
Jeff Davis or The King of the Southern Dominions (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 75)
The Mormon King (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 99)
The Sinking of the Pirate Alabama by the U. S. Gunboat "Kearsarge," Captain Winslow, June 19, 1864 ("I sing the doom and dark career," by Silas S. Steele) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 142)
Uncle Sam's Boys ("New songs of late, we've had a score," by H. Angelo) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 161)
Boating Song ("Oh when I cut paternal ties, And College Hill first blessed my eyes") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 95)
The Settlement of Rhode Island ("Did you ever hear the story told Of Roger Williams, the preacher bold") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 96)
Amherst, Our Queen ("Come gather round, good spirits true") (by C. Kittredge, [class of 18]62) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 47)
Going Kangarooing ("I'll tell you of a jolly spree, The other day some two or three With one another did agree To go out Kangarooing") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 45; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 75-76)
The Indian Empire ("To this Colony it's a longish run, So now I'll give you a bit of fun") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 155-157)
Australian Humbug ("If attentive ears you'll yield to me, From our present colonial history") (by "Mr. Mulholand") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 163-165)
Dick Briggs from Australia ("Dick Briggs a wealthy farmer's son To England lately took a run, To see his friends and have some fun; He'd been five year in Australia") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, p. 53)
NOTES [479 words]: 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." - BS
This even though most places referred to as "Cannibal Islands" were in fact under European control by the time the song was written (under the above assumption). The etymology of "Cannibal" in Robert Hendrickson, The Ocean Almanac, Doubleday, 1984, pp. 118-119, derives the name "Cannibal" from "Carib," "Inhabitant of the Caribbean," a formation going back to Columbus -- although cannibals if anything were more common in the Aztec areas of Mexico, as well as in the South Seas (recall how Captain Cook died; also the fact that kuru, the laughing sickness, the first known prion disease, spread by eating infected brain tissue -- and was found only in the South Seas).
Most of these places were at one time or another called "Cannibal Islands" -- although hardly any of them had an actual king. It was more common to eat one's enemies than one's subjects (the latter is obviously inefficient -- you run out of subjects fast that way), so cannibalism tends to imply a nearby external enemy. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 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
Jim Holder points out to us that Herman Melville mentions this song in chapter 1 of his 1846 tale Typee. It probably should not surprise us that Melville was interested in cannibalism; according to A. B. C. Whipple, Yankee Whalers in the South Seas, Doubleday & Company, 1954, pp. 41-45, Melville was fascinated by the story of the whaleship Essex, which was fatally damaged by a whale, forcing the men into the boats, with instances of cannibalism taking place on both surviving boats. This story underlies Moby Dick. Typee has its own link to cannibalism; it is largely autobiographical, about Melville's own travels in the South Pacific -- in which he actually jumped ship on an island allegedly inhabited by cannibals (Whipple, pp. 46-48). - (RBW)
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the 1827 printing in Hodgson's Royal Song Book. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PHCFS195

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