"A kid, a kid, which my father bought for two pieces of money.[1] A kid! a kid!
"There came a cat which ate the kid, which my father bought for two pieces of money. A kid!
"There came a dog, who bit the cat, who ate the kid, which my father bought for two pieces of money. A kid!
"There came a stick, which beat the dog, who bit the cat, who ate the kid, which my father bought for two pieces of money. A kid! A kid!
"There came a fire, which burnt the stick, which beat the dog, who bit the cat, who ate the kid, which my father bought for two pieces of money. A kid! A kid!
"There came the water, which quenched the fire, which burnt the stick, which beat the dog, who
- ↑ Suslein. In Heine's version, every noun in this song assumes the diminutive lein, as Vaterlein, "little father," Bocklein, Hundlein, &c.
p. 28. The original is in Chaldee. It is throughout an allegory. The kid, one of the pure animals, denotes Israel. The Father by whom it was purchased is Jehovah; the two pieces of money signify Moses and Aaron. The cat means the Assyrians, the dog the Babylonians, the staff the Persians, the fire the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great. The water betokens the Roman or the fourth of the great monarchies to whose dominion the Jews were subjected. The ox is a symbol of the Saracens, who subdued Palestine; the butcher that killed the ox denotes the crusaders by whom the Holy Land was taken from the Saracens; the Angel of Death the Turkish power to which Palestine is still subject. The tenth stanza is designed to show that God will take signal vengeance on the Turks, and restore the Jews to their own land.
