I heard this story more than once in Jamaica.
Compare Renel 2:167-168; 283-286; Bundy, JAFL 32:420; Parsons, Andros Island, 62-65 and 62, note 1, for references.
In a manuscript story shown me by Mrs. W. E. Wilson (Wona) which she took down from her old nurse, the same song is adapted to another story of a disobedient boy. In this tale, the boy insists upon going out late at night. He is at last captured by an ogre named "Time-an'-tootoos" who carries him off to devour. Father, mother and sister refuse his cry for help, but the brother finally hears him and comes just in time to his rescue. The song runs:
Me muma, oh, me muma, oh,
Time-an'-tootoo, oh, lennan boy!
Me muma, oh, me muma, oh,
Time-an'-tootoo, oh, lennan boy!
Carry him go 'long, carry him go long,
Hard ears baby, oh, lennan boy!
For the story, compare Parson's Andros Island, "Disobedient Boy," 155-156, and see Jacobs's tale of Mr. Miacca, English Fairy Tales, third edition, revised, 171; Grimm, 42, The Godfather, Bolte u. Polívka 1:375-377. This is the only case in which I found the same song adapted to the dialogue of two different stories.
