The mood now is Not bad...
Ten Little Indians counting rhyme
I suggest you count to ten. More precisely, count from ten to one. А, если быть еще точнее - то вспомнить знаменитую считалку из романа Агаты Кристи "Десять негритят" (Ten Little Niggers). By the way, do you know that due to political correctness, at one time this novel was published under the title “And Then There Were None”. And even the counting rhyme was redone. Вместо "Ten Little Niggers" было "Ten Little Soldier".
And we will remember this counting rhyme exactly the way everyone is used to. Let me remind you that this counting song is not at all folk, as many believe, but was written by Frank Green in the late 60s of the 19th century.
Shortly before its appearance, another song was published in England. It was written by the American Septimus Winner and it was called Ten little Injuns. Green, in turn, wrote an imitation of Winner’s song and it quickly spread to music halls and other similar entertainment venues. Here they are, the counters:
Считалка "Ten Little Niggers" в оригинале
Ten little nigger boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self, and then there were nine.
Nine little nigger boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself, and then there were eight.
Kight little nigger boys travelling in Devon;
One said he´d stay there, and then there were seven.
Seven little nigger boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in half, and then there were six.
Six little nigger boys playing with a hive;
A bumble-bee stung one, and then there were five.
Five little nigger boys going in for law;
One got in chancery, and then there were four.
Four little nigger boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one, and then there were three.
Three little nigger boys walking in the Zoo;
A big bear hugged one, and then there were two.
Two little nigger boys sitting in the sun;
One got frizzled up, and then there was one.
One little nigger boy left all alone;
He went out and hung himself and then there were None.
Counting book "Ten Little Indians" in Russian translation
Ten little Indians went to dinner,
One choked, there were nine left.
Nine little Indians, having eaten, nodded off,
One couldn’t wake up, there were eight of them left.
Eight little blacks went to Devon later,
One did not return, only seven remained.
Seven little black boys chopped wood together,
One killed himself - and there were six of them left.
Six little black boys went for a walk in the apiary,
One was stung by a bumblebee, there are five left.
Five little black boys did the judging,
They convicted one, leaving four.
Four black girls went swimming in the sea,
One took the bait, leaving three of them.
Three little blacks ended up in a menagerie,
One was grabbed by a bear, and the two were left alone.
Two little black boys lay down in the sun,
One burned down - and now there is one, unhappy, lonely.
The last little black man looked tired,
He went and hanged himself, and there was no one left.
This little counting rhyme translated by S.Ya. Marshak
Ten little Indians were swimming.
You can't be naughty in the river, after all!
But the stubborn brother was so naughty,
That there were nine brothers.
Once Upon a Time Nine Little Indians
We were hunting for elk.
The ninth brother fell on the horn,
And now there are eight of them.
Eight little black boys were walking.
There was darkness in the forest,
Missing younger brother,
And there were seven brothers.
Speckle seven little Indians
Pie - and the village eats.
The greediest brother has eaten too much,
And there were six brothers.
Let's go six little brothers
Study the laws.
The eloquent brother entered the court,
And there were five brothers.
Five little brothers
I caught bees in the apartment,
The fifth brother was stung in the ear,
And there were four of them.
Four little black boys in the forest
The savages caught up.
The next brother was eaten
And there were three brothers.
There are three black boys in the menagerie
We climbed into the lion's cage.
The third brother was torn to death,
And there were two brothers.
Two black boys were drowning
On a rainy day, a fireplace.
My brother fell into the fire alone,
And only one survived.
Once upon a time, there was even a parody of this children's rhyme spread on the Internet. The brave fidoshniks composed a story from their lives. Professional programmers will understand everything:
Parody of the rhyme about little blacks
10 programmers decided to make a product,
One asked “Where is the money?”, and there were 9 of them left.
9 programmers appeared before the boss,
One of them did not know FoxPro, and there were 8 of them left.
8 programmers bought by IBM,
One said “Mak rulez!”, and there were 7 of them left.
7 programmers wanted to read helр,
One of the screws was covered, and there were 6 of them left.
6 programmers tried to understand the code,
One of them went crazy, and there are 5 of them left.
5 programmers bought a CD-ROM,
One brought Chinese
The history of the famous counting song begins in the North American States in the 1860s. It was then that Septimus Winner, an author from Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, North in the Civil War), wrote the song “Ten Little Indians” based on folk humor.
After some time, as part of a cultural exchange, the song ended up in Victorian England and was enthusiastically accepted into the then light theatrical shows, but previously underwent some changes. Английский автор-песенник Фрэнк Грин адаптировал текст под потребности времени и места, переписав некоторые строки и поменяв индейцев на негритят (точнее негров - niggers). But this had to be changed not only because blacks, more than Indians, are understandable to the European public. An important point It was that at that time in entertainment genres there were popular techniques in which actors grotesquely made up themselves as blacks and performed their numbers in this form. This image feature existed for quite a long time and was later actively used in jazz - “white” music passed off as “black”, which can be seen in newsreels of the first half of the 20th century.
As a result, this English version of F. Greene about “Ten Little Indians” became canonical literary, and in this form returned to America, where it was luxuriously published in 1890 in the form of a colorful children’s book, becoming one of the brightest artifacts of the “Golden Age of Children’s Literature.” "
In some ways, “Ten Little Indians” is the same North American classic as “The Wizard of Oz” or “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” but it is unlikely that in the current format of society, anyone perceives it that way. The “racist” background is much easier to see here than the lively humor and signs of the time. In fact, there is no racism there - people thought so then, they lived in such a world. In addition, slavery was abolished, the black population began to acquire rights. The prospects were excellent.
The counting song about black children received powerful PR and popularity from a new side after the release of Agatha Christie's detective novel of the same name in 1939. However, during reprints, the book, for politically correct reasons, changed its title several times to “Ten Little Indians,” “And Then There Were None.” In the 70s, the novel was seemingly republished under the original title - “Ten Little Indians”, but still in the English-language segment of world literature it is better known as “Ten Little Indians”. In our country, due to the absence of problems with blacks and slavery, the book was always published under its native title, and in 1987 a famous film was made.
I accidentally discovered photographs of the miracle book at an online auction. There was no cover there, and, accordingly, there was no left side of the picture on the first spread. I don’t remember what text was used in A. Christie’s book and the film and I don’t want to look for it, so I offer my free translation with semantic reference to the illustrations.
Ten little black kids gathered for a ride.
One sold his bike - there were nine left.
Nine little black kids had a blast half the night.
One slept through the fun, the eight of them remained.
Eight little blacks drove 10 miles.
One got stuck on the road, but seven made it.
Seven blacks were trying to chop wood in the yard.
One overdid it, and six were left.
Six little blacks were playing with beehives in the apiary.
One was severely bitten, and five escaped.
Five black boys were sorting out the cases in court.
One went to prison, and four ran away.
Four black children went swimming in the sea.
One was eaten by a fish, and there were three left.
Three little black boys in the menagerie laughed loudly.
One bear was captured, but two escaped.
It was hot in the sun for two little black boys at noon.
One went crazy, the other was lucky.
The latter did not experience loneliness for long.
He married successfully. And there are no blacks left...
At the end, I would like to give a sample of our Russian urban folklore on the theme of ten little Indians. I recall from childhood:
Ten little Indians went swimming in the sea,
Ten little Indians frolicked in the open space.
One of them drowned
They bought him a coffin.
And here's the result:
Nine little Indians went swimming in the sea...
None of the little blacks go swimming in the sea,
None of the little blacks frolic in the open air.
But then one resurrected
They bought him a cross.
And here's the result:
One of the little blacks goes for a swim in the sea...
And so on until all ten are resurrected, and then begin to drown again...
This is such metempsychosis, such is the cycle of blacks in nature. Our little blacks never disappear “for no reason, no matter what”, they always come back...
THE STORY OF THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AGATHA CHRISTIE The most mysterious and unsolved work of Agatha Christie so far was her own disappearance. In December 1926, after her husband asked her for a divorce, admitting that he had fallen in love with another woman. Agatha Christie disappeared, and for 11 days almost the entire country was looking for her. Agatha Christie left her home in Berkshire on December 3, 1926, driving away in her Morris Cowley. car, on windshield which had fine tickets for illegal parking, she abandoned it the next morning near a chalk quarry. The car was soon discovered, and a fur coat and an expired driver's license were found inside. Christie herself got to the nearest railway station and left for London, and from there she moved to North Yorkshire (northern England). Subsequently, the writer introduced herself everywhere as Teresa Neal (the surname coincided with the surname of Nancy Neal, to whom her husband was about to leave). She chose a fashionable hotel at a hydrotherapy resort for her anonymous stay. At this time, the fugitive was already missed, and the news about the car abandoned in the wilderness gave rise to the most alarming rumors. The story was picked up by newspapers and radio, and a police investigation began. Fans of the detective queen, as befits their favorite genre, began to build theories about the murder. For several days, Archibald Christie fought off attacks from the press and questions about his involvement in the incident. Answering reporters, he did not mention his own intrigue. Such an explanation for his wife's disappearance would undoubtedly destroy his reputation. On the fifth day, the Daily Mail began to assure its readers that the missing woman had a revolver with her and could have shot herself. Meanwhile, Agatha Christie herself went to the post office to advertise in The Times. The message asked for responses from friends and family of Teresa Neil, who had recently arrived in the UK from South Africa. The fugitive was discovered after an appeal from hotel guests, who a week later finally identified the traveler as the heroine of the front pages of British newspapers. Soon Archibald arrived at the hotel with the knowledge of the police. When they met, Agatha introduced herself to him as Teresa Neal. Mr. Christie told the press that his wife had experienced amnesia and had trouble defining her own self. This version is still alive today - its supporters believe that due to stress, the writer was struck by a dissociative fugue (short-term memory disorder). After examination, amnesia was confirmed by doctors. Agatha Christie herself never commented on the most mysterious episode of her biography. In her autobiography, December 1926 is not mentioned at all. Perhaps there was no amnesia, and everything turned out to be simpler. In England at that time, divorces were granted only in exceptional cases, were considered something out of the ordinary and often entailed public disgrace. Christie, who was already a prominent figure in British literature, was shocked by the possibility of a scandal that would cause divorce proceedings. By the way, the writer never liked the annoying press. Whatever caused Agatha Christie to stun England with her disappearance, her quarrel with her husband still ended in divorce, the certificate of which was issued in 1928. Just two weeks later, Archibald married Nancy Neal. The writer, along with her nine-year-old daughter, went to the Canary Islands, where she completed the novel “The Mystery of the Blue Train.” photo: Mr. and Mrs. Christie after their wedding (1914).
"Ten Little Indians"- detective novel by English writer Agatha Christie
“Ten Little Indians” summary
Ten complete strangers (except for one married couple) come to Negro Island at the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. A. N. Onim (Alec Norman Onim and Anna Nancy Onim). There are no onims on the island. In the living room there is a tray with ten porcelain little Indians, and in each of the guests’ rooms there is a children’s rhyme reminiscent of “Ten Green Bottles”:
"Ten Little Indians"
(classical translation by L. G. Bespalova)
Ten little Indians went to dinner,
One choked, there were nine left.
Nine little Indians, having eaten, nodded off,
One couldn’t wake up, there were eight of them left.
Eight little blacks went to Devon later,
One did not return, only seven remained.
Seven little black boys chopped wood together,
One killed himself - and there were six of them left.
Six little black boys went for a walk in the apiary,
One was stung by a bumblebee, there are five left.
Five little black boys did the judging,
They convicted one, leaving four.
Four little black girls went swimming in the sea,
One took the bait, leaving three of them.
Three little blacks ended up in a menagerie,
One was grabbed by a bear, and only two were left.
Two little black boys lay down in the sun,
One burned down - and now there is one, unhappy, lonely.
The last little black man looked tired,
He went and hanged himself, and there was no one left.
When the guests gather in the living room, the butler Rogers, according to the written order Onim left for him, turns on the gramophone. The guests hear a voice that accuses them of committing murders.
-EdwardArmstrong- A doctor from Harley Street operated on an elderly woman, Mary Elizabeth Clees, while drunk, resulting in her death. He was invited to work as a doctor for a substantial fee. - Emily Brent — elderly woman, kicked out a young servant, Beatrice Taylor, from the house after learning that she became pregnant out of wedlock; the girl drowned herself. I received an invitation written in illegible handwriting, I assumed it was from an old friend. - Vera Claythorne was the nanny of Cyril Hamilton, who stood in the way of her lover Hugo's inheritance. While swimming, Vera allowed the boy to swim behind a rock - as a result, he fell into the current and drowned. She came to the island at the suggestion of Mrs. Onim to become her secretary. - Police officer William Henry Blore gave false testimony in court, which led to the imprisonment of the innocent Landor in hard labor, where he died a year later. He was a scoundrel and always confident in his abilities. - John Gordon MacArthur- an old general, during the war he sent his subordinate, his wife’s lover Arthur Richmond, to certain death. I received an invitation to the island from old army comrades. - Philip Lombard threw 20 people, natives of the East African tribe into the veld, stealing all the provisions, leaving them to certain death. Came to the island at the suggestion of Isaac Morris - Thomas and Ethel Rogers, while serving Miss Brady, an elderly sick woman, did not give her medicine on time; she died leaving the Rogerses a small inheritance. He and his wife were hired by Mr. Onim. - Anthony Marston- a young guy who ran over two children, John and Lucy Combs, with a car. Was invited by my friend. - Lawrence John Wargrave- The judge sentenced Edward Simon to death.
The boat that brought the guests does not return, a storm begins and the guests get stuck on the island. They begin to die one after another, in accordance with the children's rhyme about little blacks whose statuettes disappear with each death.
Marston dies first - there is potassium cyanide in a glass of whiskey. Rogers notices that one of the porcelain babies has disappeared.
The next morning Mrs. Rogers dies; a lethal dose of sleeping pills was mixed into her glass. The judge states that Onim is most likely a dangerous maniac and murderer. The men search the island and the house, but find no one. MacArthur is found murdered. Wargrave states that the murderer is among the guests, since there is no one else on the island. No one had an alibi for the period of the general’s death.
In the morning, Rogers, the butler, is found hacked to death. That same morning, Emily Brent dies from a cyanide injection. Miss Brent was injected with Dr. Armstrong's syringe. At the same time, Lombard’s revolver, which he brought with him, disappears.
Vera goes up to her room, a minute later the others hear her screams. The men rush into Vera's room and discover that she has lost consciousness because she touched the seaweed suspended from the ceiling in the dark. Returning to the courtroom, they find the judge shot dead, wearing a red robe and wig. The pawnshop finds a revolver in his drawer.
That same night, Dr. Armstrong disappears. Now the rest are sure that the doctor is the killer. In the morning they leave the house and stay on the rock. Blore returns to the house for food, Vera and Lombard hear a strange rumble. They find Blore murdered - a marble watch in the shape of a bear was dropped on his head. They then find Armstrong's body washed ashore by the tide.
Only Vera and Lombard remain. Vera decides that Lombard is a murderer. She gets his revolver and kills Philip. Vera returns to the house, confident that she is safe, enters her room and sees a noose and a chair. In deep shock from what she experienced and saw, she climbs onto a chair and hangs herself.
Epilogue
The police arriving on the island find 10 corpses. Inspector Mayne and Sir Thomas Lagg from Scotland Yard are trying to restore the chronology of events and solve the mystery of the murders on the black island, but in the end they come to a dead end. They build versions regarding the last killed:
- Armstrong killed everyone and then threw himself into the sea, his body washed ashore by the tide. However, subsequent tides were lower and it was definitely established that the body had been in the water for 12 hours.
- Philip Lombard brought the watch down on Blore's head, forced Vera to hang himself, returned to the beach (where his body was found) and shot himself. However, the revolver lay in front of the judge's room.
- William Blore shot Lombard and forced Vera to hang herself, after which he brought the watch down on his head. But no one chose this method of suicide and the police know that Blore was a scoundrel, he had no desire for justice.
- Vera Claythorne shot Lombard, dropped a marble watch on Blore's head, and then hanged herself. But someone picked up the chair she had knocked over and placed it against the wall.
Killer Confession
The fishermen find a bottle with a letter and take it to Scotland Yard. The author of the letter is Judge Wargrave. Even in his youth, he dreamed of murder, but his desire for justice prevented him, which is why he became a lawyer. Being terminally ill, he decided to satisfy his passion and selected ten people who committed murders, but for some reason escaped punishment. The tenth was the criminal Isaac Morris, through whom Wargrave acquired the island. Before going to the island, the judge poisoned Morris. While on the island, he exterminated the others. After killing Miss Brent, he conspired with Armstrong, saying that he suspected Lombard. Armstrong helped the judge fake his death, after which the killer lured him onto a rock at night and threw him into the sea. After making sure that Vera had hanged herself, Wargrave went up to his room and shot himself, tying the revolver with an elastic band to the door and to the glasses that he placed under himself. After the shot, the rubber band came untied from the door and hung on the temple of the glasses, the revolver fell at the threshold.
