Anyone know what that ubiquitous snake charmer’s tune is? You know, the one that is ALWAYS used in cartoons whenever there’s a snake charmer, or to portray anything Egyptian? As kids, you sing it with the words:
Oh they don’t wear pants
on the Southern side of France
But they do wear grass
to cover up their ass…
Everyone knows the tune, but I have no idea where it actually comes from.
Is the title something about Napoleon?
The one that goes:
Nya na NA NA NA
Nya na Nuh Na Nuh Na NA…
That one?
Edit:
I got it!
http://www.shira.net/streets-of-cairo.htm
It’s called “Streets of Cairo” or “The Poor Little Country Maid.”
http://www.gildedserpent.com/articles3/streets-of-cairo.htm
For a previous discussion of this tune, can you believe it, go to this thread:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=33207&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=mars&start=0
Actually it was about belly dancing music, and this tune just came up. It’s a funny thread though.
Edit: Oh shoot! emmline got there before I did. 
You gotta be fast in this forum, I’ll tell you!
ABC’s?
When I was in grade school, we learned it like this:
There’s a place in France
Where the women dirty dance
And there’s a hole in the wall
Where the men can see it all
…but you have to pronounce “France” and “dance” as though they’re spelled “Frahnce” and “dahnce” or it doesn’t sound right.
As in to stupid to read music?
Slan,
D. 
THANK YOU!!!
The words I know are:
There’s a place in France
Where the alligators dance
And the girls all go
Without any underpants.
All the girls in France
Do the hoochie-coochie dance…
I never heard any other words to the tune.
The common thread seems to be “French girls”. What’s the deal with that?
Is this a WWI thing brought home from the big war?
That’s not right. I.D.10-t’s not to stupid to read music. I.D.10-t’s too stupid to read music. There’s a difference.
“In a Turkish jail
Where they hamg you from a nail
And they scrawl dirty pictures on the wall
Where the hair grows thick
From your belly to your *****
And the flies play billiards with your *****”
I stand corrected
Slan,
D.
"In the German nick,
where they hang you by your *****
…etc
I can read music, it’s just that ABC’s don’t bog down the connection in the same way that a GIF of sheet music does and ABC’s are easy to convert to sheet music.
(Actually, I can barely read ABC notation.)
Googling it didn’t seem to work until I typed in ‘snake charmer’s melody’ instead of tune. The second link down has a sound clip as well . The link is shira.net and it’s headed with The Streets Of Cairo or Poor Little Country Maid. It says the melody is a circus march version of this tune.
Does anyone know the words to Barnacle Bill the Sailor?
ps-sorry I’m not litterate enough to cut and paste links!
mike
better late than never, I guess
http://www.tinwhistler.com/sheet.asp?code=streets_of_cairo
I put this up on my site a couple years ago.
There’s a place in France
Where the naked ladies dance
And a hole in the wall
where the men can see it all
Wanderer, At least you came up with a direct link!
Well don’t be silly…
Give all you got
They used that song on Captain Kangaroo something to the effect of,
I’m a persian cat
A persian cat
…
Etc.
The only words I’ve heard to Barnacle Bill are inappropriate for public view on this site.