The nursery rhyme, When the Bough Breaks, is not as creepy and violent as it may seem. The origin of this nursery rhyme goes back to the mothers of the Musk- ogee Tribe. Effie Crockett, Davy Crockett’s older sister, was invited to the Muskogee camp.
Once there, she laughed at what she saw. The Muskogee women had a custom of cradling their papooses among the swaying branches of birch trees. This protected them from ground insects, the sun and wild animals. It also served another purpose: the swaying and soothing motion of the trees kept the babies quiet as each baby enjoyed listening to songbirds, butterflies, and all things of nature.
One of the mothers began to sing a song to her little papoose in her native tongue. Miss Effie observed a small tear running down the mother’s cheek as she sang.
Effie translated the song into what we now know as When the Bough Breaks. The meaning isn’t about a baby falling headlong onto the ground from a branch, but a “bough” is simply a tree branch analogy of their little baby growing up.
The baby would soon outgrow its cradle. The baby would no longer need the protection of his mother. The “branch” would break one day because the baby had become too heavy. The “cradle” would fall to the earth - the child, no longer a baby, would dust himself off and grow into a man.
Now you know.
