Childhood Memories

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.  -- Elizabeth Lawrence

Lately my daughter has been asking me to sing a song to her at bedtime instead of reading a book.  I have picked up many songs over the years, but I've refrained from singing some of the songs that my mother used to sing to me because they are scary.  I mean, really scary for a kid (at least they were to me).  Below is an example.

One kid that I knew was also familiar with the song, and with his rather twisted sense of humour theorized that the Dragon in this song was actually Puff the Magic Dragon turned evil after Jackie left him.  (Technically this couldn't have been possible, because Puff was written 37 years later.)

Green-Eyed Dragon With the Thirteen Tails
by Greatrix Newman and Wolseley Charles (1926)
　

Once upon a time lived a Fair Princess, most beautiful and charming;
Her Father, the King, was a wicked old thing, with manners most alarming.
And always on the front door mat, a most ferocious Dragon sat,
It made such an awful shrieking noise!
So all you little girls and boys...

Beware, take care, of the Green-eyed dragon with the 13 tails,
He'll feed, with greed, on little boys, puppy dogs and big fat snails.
Then off to his lair each child he'll drag,
And each of his 13 tails he'll wag!
Beware, take care, and creep off on tip toes.
And hurry up the stairs,
And say your prayers,
And duck your heads, your pretty curly heads,
Beneath the clothes, the clothes, the clothes.

That Dragon he lived for years and years, but he never grew much thinner.
For lunch, he'd try a Policeman pie, or a roast M.P. for dinner;
One brave man went 'round with an axe
And tried to collect his income tax
The Dragon he smiled with fiendish glee,
And sadly murmured "R.I.P."...

Beware, take care, of the Green-eyed dragon with the 13 tails,
He'll feed, with greed, on little boys, puppy dogs and big fat snails.
Then off to his lair each child he'll drag,
And each of his 13 tails he'll wag!
Beware, take care, and creep off on tip toes.
And hurry up the stairs,
And say your prayers,
And duck your heads, your pretty curly heads,
Beneath the clothes, the clothes, the clothes.

That Dragon went down to the kitchen one day where the Fair Princess was baking;
He ate, by mistake, some rich plum cake which the Fair Princess was making,
That homemade cake, he could not digest,
He moaned and he groaned, and at last went west -
And now his ghost, with bloodshot eyes
At midnight clanks his chains and cries...

Beware, take care, of the Green-eyed dragon with the 13 tails,
He'll feed, with greed, on little boys, puppy dogs and big fat snails.
Then off to his lair each child he'll drag,
And each of his 13 tails he'll wag!
Beware, take care, and creep off on tip toes.
And hurry up the stairs,
And say your prayers,
And duck your heads, your pretty curly heads,
Beneath the clothes, the clothes, the clothes.