ife of a peasant
who had been mysteriously enticed away by the fairies was appealed to by
her husband's mother to return.

"Who is to feed the babe, and rock its cradle?"

sang the grandmother, and the wind wafted back the reply--

"If it cry for food, I will feed it with copious dews;
If it wish to sleep, I will rock its cradle with a gentle breeze."

How devoid of all sentiment our Englished version of the same tale
reads.

"Hush-a-bye, baby, on a tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
Down comes the baby and cradle and all."

No wonder this purposeless lullaby is satirised in the orthodox libretto
of Punch's Opera or the Dominion of Fancy, for Punch, having sung it,
throws the child out of the window.

The poetic instinct of the German mother is rich in expression, her
voice soothing and magnetic as she sways her babe to and fro to the
melody of--

"Sleep, baby, sleep!
Thy father tends the sheep,
Thy mother shakes the branches small,
Whence happy dreams in showers fall.
Sleep, baby, sleep!

"Sleep, baby, sleep!
The sky is full of sheep,
The stars the lambs of heaven are,
For whom the shepherd moon doth care.
Sleep, baby, sleep!"[F]

The lullaby of the Black Guitar, told by the Grimm brothers in their
German fairy tales, gives us the same thought.

"Thou art sleeping, my son, and at ease,
Lulled by the whisperings of the trees."

Another German nurse song of a playful yet commanding tone translates--

"Baby, go to sleep!
Mother has two little sheep,
One is black and one is white;
If you do not sleep to-night,
First the black and then the white
Shall give your little toe a bite."

A North Holland version has degenerated into the flabby Dutch of--

"Sleep, baby, sleep!
Outside there stands a sheep
With four white feet,
That drinks its milk so sweet.
Sleep, baby, sleep!"

The old English cradle rhyme, evidently written to comfort fathers more
than babies, is given by way of contrast, and, as is usual with our own
countrymen, the versification is thoroughly British, slurred over and
slovenly--

"Hush thee, my babby,
Lie still with thy daddy,
Thy mammy has gone to the mill
To grind thee some wheat
To make thee some meat,
Oh, my dear babby, do lie still!"

The Danish l